


Flying in the Face of Fate - Season Three

by muddyevil



Series: Flying in the Face of Fate [3]
Category: Flying in the Face of Fate
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:20:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 36,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22721611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muddyevil/pseuds/muddyevil
Summary: Micah is one reason a spanner has been thrown into Lin and Caelan's life, but with the addition of a mysterious group trying to find out the secret to Lin's curse by any means necessary, things start to get worse.
Series: Flying in the Face of Fate [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1573132





	1. Dancing and Cults

The bass drum vibrated through Micah’s legs, and his heart beat alongside it. He had just the right amount of alcohol to be able to move his hips fluidly without too much stopping him from being able to stand up straight. Well, he thought that at least. And by the amount of people coming to grind up against him he assumed they thought so, too.

The nightlife of Hyrendell was… lively. Okay, well maybe that wasn’t the best way to describe it, that was the understatement of the century. Micah had been in clubs all across the island, and the clubs in Hyrendell? Well, they were some of the best.

He never would have anticipated it, he had never been into the city proper before. It had a reputation for being a stuck up, pompous place; all black tie evenings and masquerades. And most of the nightlife was if he was being honest, but apparently word never really got out about the entertainment was like for the… lower class citizens of the city.

It made sense, honestly. No city could run with only the upper class occupying it. You needed people who could run the houses, people who ran the shops, and the restaurants, and cleaned the streets. And those were the kind of people who partied the hardest, and the kind of people that Micah really liked to be around. And maybe the establishments they flocked to weren’t the prettiest, and weren’t the cleanest, but honestly? Micah rarely went to these places for the surroundings. It was the people inside them that made him really feel alive.

That was how he found himself in the middle of an underground club, alcohol and music pumping through his veins as he moved on the dancefloor. It was a blur of all genders and none, bodies pressed up against him and grinding against him to the rhythm. This was his element, where he was made to be. The music was so loud he could feel it in the beat of his heart, vibrating up through the floor and telling him how to move and when to do it.

There were no windows, no clocks in here to tell him what time it was and the hours blended together. He could have been here for minutes, or days, and he found himself not caring. As long as he was having fun, and as long as the people around him kept moving, he could stay here forever.

When his legs started to get tired he stumbled to the bar, collapsed into an empty seat and ordering another cocktail. All he needed was a short break, and then he would be back up and dancing again.

It must have been some sort of sixth sense that told him which table to look at. The bar was full of beautiful people, but many were already paired off or otherwise accounted for. He supposed it was a small place, and he was fresh meat.

Not that he wasn’t a fantastic catch even if he wasn’t a new face in the crowd.  
Four people sat around the table, looking like they were more here for the alcohol than the dancing. Apparently there weren’t many places where people like them could just sit and talk without the noise and chaos of the dancefloor so close to them. Despite that, they still seemed to be having a good time. Sometimes magic was useful like that.

A dark skinned wood elf woman appeared to be in deep conversation with a large half-orc man, with eyes apparently only for each other. Their clothes weren’t really the type you would usually see in a club like this, which only gave him more of an idea that this place was for more than just dancing.

Sat next to them, half paying attention to the conversation and half glancing about the room, were a human man with a mess of brown hair perched on top of his head sat across from a pretty air genasi. The air genasi was what caught his eye, she kept glancing over at him with a look that could only mean one thing.

Micah couldn’t help it. He lived for the attention, and he preened under it. Sure, getting into Lin’s bed had been easy, but sometimes he missed being with a woman. And here was someone who looked like she would be into it, too.

Usually he would be the one to make the first move, hell he couldn’t remember the last time he didn’t, and he wasn’t opposed to approaching the whole group in order to try and get to know her better. But as soon as they made eye contact she smiled back at the human man with a knowing smirk; and stood to come over to him.

“You’re new around here.” she grinned, and Micah immediately stood up to let her sit but she waved him away. “You’re fine. But if you wanted to dance…”

Micah looked her up and down, taking in the floor length skirt with the slits up both legs, and the white crop top that looked like it was made from one long piece of fabric wrapped around and around her chest. He grinned back, wide and bright, before chugging the last of his cocktail and taking her hand. Tired legs be damned, this was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

She weaved her way across the floor like she owned this place, and the confidence only made Micah want to stick with her more. 

They finally arrived at an unoccupied space, somewhere they could be somewhat alone despite the number of people standing around them. She took the lead almost immediately, grabbing hold of his hips and pulling him close before she started to move.

If Micah had been sober he would have been embarrassed about how much better co-ordinated his partner was. Then again, if he had been sober he wouldn’t have been stumbling the way that he was. 

But she more than made up for it, flowing around her in a way he was sure was magical and rolling her hips in a way that was guaranteed to drive him wild. He let the music move him, but if he was being honest there was nothing more he could do than sway from side to side and let her work her magic.

“So what brings a beautiful man like you to a place like this?” He heard a sweet hum more than words, in a tune that told him that this girl really knew how to sing if she wanted to. It was a standard way to cast magic, one that he himself used often enough.

The voice emerged in his mind, cutting through the thud of the music around them and the chatter of the dance floor. Well now, it made more sense how they were all engaged in conversation over at the table.

One eyebrow raised, and after a second he realised that he had never answered her. 

“I live and work up in the Chasso house.” he responded with a grin, more than a little proud to show off the work he had managed to secure. And he got what he wanted, as well, when she raised an eyebrow back at him over her shoulder.

“Wow, really? No one has been in that house, it’s kind of an urban legend around here. Tall, dark, and handsome elf living up there all on his own, taking in his male lovers every so often.”

The sober part of Micah suspected that she was trying to make him feel jealous but hell, he knew that Lin had had many lovers in the past. He couldn’t really bring himself to care. If she was waiting for a response she didn’t show it, running her hands down his chest to hold onto his waist as her hips kept her rhythm. 

“Are you local, then?” Micah responded in his mind, projecting the words through to her.

“Born and raised. My friends and I work over at the [Sune] temple. I’m sure you’ve seen it from the mansion up there.”

And Micah had. It was a beautiful structure, visible from Lin’s room over the trees. Pillars of gold reaching up to the sky, topped with what looked like molten gold dripping down beautiful shining glass. He had never been inside, but he had been in enough of the beauty worshipping deities temples to know roughly what it would look like, more focused on looks over any sort of function.

“Maybe you can show me around one day?” he asked with a smile, giving her a look that he hoped was seductive even through the amount of alcohol in his system.

“Of course!” she responded, gyrating up against him which kept his mind shorted out from any rational thought. “I can think of something else that I would like to show you around first though.”

And okay, Micah was starting to really enjoy this. Sure the runaround could be fun, but he was worked up enough at this point to want to move forward faster.

“You can show me up to your nice mansion…” she added, lids half closed and body pressed up against his.

And it was tempting, it really was. He’d never slept in a bed as comfortable as the one up in Lin’s house, and he really did enjoy sharing it all the times Lin had snuck in there with him. But it wasn’t his house, he had only been here a few weeks and just… bringing someone back felt like he was taking advantage of Lin’s hospitality. It must have shown on his face because the woman in front of him spoke again.

“Come on, a big house like that, no one will know. I promise I’ll be quiet…”

Micah could do nothing but keep staring at her. Maybe he could be quiet, but then again Lin seemed to notice everything. He couldn’t even get a drink in the middle of the night without Lin knowing and asking him how he slept in the morning. Adding to that he really didn’t want to be rude, Lin had been kind enough to let him stay there and just bringing a stranger back seemed to be betraying that kindness. 

“Is there nowhere else we can go?” he asked finally, ears ticking down in disappointment. It would be a shame to let a night with this girl go, but he would much rather that than Lin and Caelan throw him out. 

There was a pause for just a second, where the woman’s face was hard to read. If she was judging him it wasn’t that apparent, and her hips kept moving against his so surely he hadn’t done something too awful.

“Sure.” she replied after a second, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Her hands found his, and he tugged him back and away from the dancefloor. This night was shaping up to be better than he never could have imagined.

Micah woke in a bed slightly less comfy than the one he had gotten used to sleeping with the last couple of weeks, with a cool body pressed up against his back. Usually he would wriggle away from something so cold in his bed, but he couldn’t bring himself to do that right now. It seemed rude, after the night that he just had.

His brain was thrumming painfully against his skull, beating a rhythm discordant with the one in his chest. It was complete instinct to hum quietly as to not wake the bed next to him, a song he remembered from his childhood that probably would have made him better even without the magic he layered underneath it.  
After he had dealt with the headache from the activities the night before, he lifted his head a little and looked all around the room. 

If he had to write about it in a song, he would say it was quaint. The entire room was decorated in neutral tones, with one or two things dotted around that showed him that someone actually lived there. It looked like any cookie cutter room that popped up in temples and universities around the country, and he supposed that it fit with the idea that the girl next to him worked in the temple. The bed was barely big enough for the both of them, which he was swiftly reminded of when the other occupant shifted in her sleep and threw an arm around his waist. 

Other people in this situation would want to leave as soon as possible, but Micah didn’t really care. It was rude, more than anything else, and you never know, there could be the chance of a repeat performance if he stayed a little longer. All he had to do was lie back down, close his eyes, and see if he could go back to sleep.

He was used to having to sneak out of places in the morning, but being a Goddess of lust and beauty meant that apparently the temple welcomed people to stay the night. Which, while it was nice to not be judged, did make Micah wonder why they made the damn beds so small. 

He had been offered a nice breakfast in one of the back-alley cafe’s in town, and damn was Micah not one to turn something like that down. There had been some small talk that morning, of course, but nothing more than what you would conceivably ask a stranger on the bus.

But as soon as they sat down, cups of coffee in hand and an order for the largest available breakfast on the way, the conversation inevitably got more personal.

“So, what do you do, up in that big house?” she finally asked, taking a sip from her coffee and looking up at him with big, pupil-less eyes.

And Micah had to think about that. Mostly because he really hadn’t done a lot that was noteworthy.

There was the man who had tried to kill Lin that first time, of course. And the couple of people who had appeared in the house looking for him after that. But apart from just being a glorified body guard, he supposed…

“I’m mostly there for entertainment.” he finally settled on. It was true, after all. Lin had a wealth of instruments that he could play on; and whereas it was more of a perk than an actual job. If he really thought about it, there wasn’t really a reason for him to still be there. But that wasn’t something you told someone you just met. “I play at dinner a lot, but I stick around to practice up there too.”

The genasi raised an eyebrow over the table at him, a smirk spreading across her face. “Oh, you play? What instruments?”

Now this, this was what Micah enjoyed talking about. “A little bit of everything, actually. Give me an instrument and I promise I can play it. I sing, too, if that helps. My Mama said I was born with music in my soul.” He had to grab at his tail, forcing it to wrap around his own leg to stop it from swishing and hitting people behind him.

“Oh, really? I’m not quite that good but I’ve been told I’m a dab hand at a fair few wind instruments. Guess it kind of comes with the territory, but I still play in the temple on big holidays.”

Micah’s ears perked up at that, and his eyes grew wide in curiosity. “Oh, really? We should meet up more often! Jam a little. I can play a few wind instruments, but I prefer having my mouth free to sing, you know?”

The genasi nodded, winking over at him. “I know how talented that mouth of yours is. I’d be happy to let it be free so you can sing as much as you want.”

Micah’s smirk could have downed even the most stalwart of old gnomes, and he was about to flirt back before a smiling halfling placed their breakfasts on the table and head back into the kitchen.

It fell quiet as they ate, for a few moments at least. That was until the genasi seemed to get curious again.

“So, is it true what they say?” she asked him with the same barely contained curiosity she seemed to have in all of her conversations. Micah simply tilted his head in response, genuinely unsure as to what she meant. “That he sacrifices people to gain dark magic?”

Micah couldn’t help but laugh out loud at that. The idea that the blushing, stammering man up at the mansion could be responsible for dark magic. Lin couldn’t even walk up the stairs half the time without falling over, the idea that he had the physical ability that was necessary to sacrifice someone was just… absurd.

“Where did that rumour come from?” he chuckled. “Has anyone even seen Lin? He couldn’t sacrifice an insect.” 

If she was offended by his outburst, then she didn’t show it. 

“Well, his entire family died out of nowhere, something that not even all of their money could solve. And people just… go missing around Hyrendell. It would make sense if there was some kind of evil stalker of the night picking them off. And no one would suspect him, so he’s the perfect man for the job!” she added, and the way she narrowed her eyes slightly told Micah that she didn’t quite believe it, either. “I don’t know. Something’s fishy, though. He’s been seen sneaking around the forest in the middle of the night.”

Micah thought to himself for a moment. It was true, there were times that Lin was nowhere to be found in the morning when Caelan and him woke up. There could be a perfectly innocent explanation, of course, but that was boring.

“What other proof have you got that he’s some sort of evil villain stalking the streets?” he asked conspiratorially. He was certain it was nothing, but what if he uncovered something big? Gossipping had always been his weakness.

“Not much. Apart from one of the old priests said that he gave up worshipping when he was a child, refused to come to the temple anymore. But he’s almost the perfect avatar of Einke, right? Why give that up if you were born into it? Unless...he found another, less publically acceptable God…”

It was all silly, childish gossip and a childish game. But Micah was, above all else, very childish at heart.

“Oh, like some sort of a cult? It will explain why he’s sneaking around at night…” Micah added with a smile. 

Was he going to go and ask Lin about it, accusing him of all sorts of evil. But was he going to keep an eye out to see whether he could find out more? Of course he was.


	2. Relaxing in the Kitchen

Caelan had lived many years of his life not caring. It had become a sort of… shield, his own form of protection. He could slit a man’s throat without giving a shit about him, and go home to his family with a smile on his face and love in his heart. The same hands that ended many lives held his wife and daughter with care.

And maybe that was why he found himself compartmentalising what he had learnt about Lin into little boxes to consider later. Maybe. Or maybe he wouldn’t ever bother unpacking them.

Even taking this into consideration, it was a little disconcerting, watching Lin go from excitedly following Micah around the markets to staring a man in the face as the life drained from his eyes. Caelan had killed many, many people; and dealing with it that easily meant that, if he were a betting man, he would put money on Lin having killed before. And not just in self defense, either. That skill of being that detached only came after witnessing many murders at your own hands.

It had weighed on his mind a little the last few weeks. Wondering what else he was hiding behind that lazy smile and fumbling incompetence. How much of it was an act? Just where in all these layers upon layers of deception was the real Lin? Had he ever even glimpsed any part of Lin that was real?

But right now, as he lazed back on one of the kitchen chairs watching Lin cook, he came to the slow realisation that he didn’t really care.

It wasn’t as if Caelan was being all open and honest to the elf. Caelan had a multitude of sides, too, even if he just showed one or two to Lin. And he didn’t appear to question that. So who was Caelan to question Lin in response? As far as he could tell Lin didn’t plan on hurting him any time soon, the Gods knew the poor man was following Caelan around like a puppy half the time. Caelan was half certain that if it came down to it he could make Lin feel guilty enough not to act on any murderous intentions. And the other half? Well, he knew for sure a quick spell or some neat knife tricks would make easy work of him. A blade to the throat in the middle of the night was hard to dodge even if you weren’t functionally useless.

Micah, on the other hand, had swallowed the lie Lin fed him hook, line, and sinker. They found evidence that Balen was planning a hit on Lin, and only then did they start making a move to harm him. This explanation was apparently absolutely fine, judging by the fact that Micah had taken up Lin’s offer to stay as long as he liked. It had been three weeks, and Micah showed no sign of moving out just yet.

Caelan could, in a way, understand. If he had been living at home the past… what must be going on eight months, he would have gone stir crazy as well. Plus having Micah around was… nice. He took away some of Lin’s attention that had up until this point been solely on Caelan, and disrupted that domesticity. It was something that Caelan would never say out loud but… It was a breath of fresh air.

Not to say that this wasn’t nice. Sitting in the kitchen in the mid morning, after a long lie in. Lin was cooking, Micah sat up on the counter next to him with his tail swishing happily behind him. It was less of a family feeling and more of a friendly atmosphere and, honestly? That was all Caelan really wanted. It calmed down the feeling of anxiety inside him that had been popping up more and more frequently the longer he spent with Lin. That wanderlust that had kept him on the road for the last ten years was wonderfully quiet for now.

He had been keeping one ear on the conversation, dipping in and out and occasionally adding one or two words to try and hide the fact his brain was somewhere else entirely. Micah had always been good at that, keeping up conversations for days on end with nothing but his sheer enthusiasm for anything and everything. 

Even then, the question that came next pulled him into the conversation more actively.

“You were alive in the last war, right? I can’t imagine Hyrendell in war time.”

The last war… Caelan had learnt about it at school, and been around older members of the family talking about it. But even though he was born in the middle of it, he really didn’t remember what it was like. Lin, though? Lin would have already been an adult when it came around, even if in Elvish society he would have been seen as too young to really do anything about it.

The elf had physically paused in his cooking, which wasn’t necessarily unusual. He had told Caelan before that he didn’t like focusing on too many things at once when one of those things was a sharp knife.

“It never hit Hyrendell. Never passed over the mountains. And even then I suppose it never really got further north than the capital.” he responded, sounding just as bored as Caelan remembered his teachers being when they spoke about it.

“Yeah, I know that.” Micah sighed, resting his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands. “But surely it would have been talked about. It was huge, right? You gotta of had prepared or something.”

Lin shook his head, back to focusing on multiple things at once. “Not that I knew of. We’ve got the mountains. People were certain they would protect us.”

“The didn’t protect the south.” Caelan added quietly. He didn’t know much about the war, but he did know that.

Enemy forces had invaded from the south west, in the middle of the Kinigao Wastes. Historically that was an awful idea, the Wastes were notoriously inhospitable. But they had been prepared, they attacked in the summer when the Wastes were at their warmest and came prepared for the weather. That was how they got so far, the Wastes had never really had to defend themselves before and fell quickly. And the Britown plains? Well, all of their forces were focused in the East. By the time they found out about the invasion much of the south had already fallen.

“Try telling that to the people who run this town.” Lin deadpanned, and in that moment Caelan wondered whether it was something that he had actually tried. “They figured that they had never been invaded before, they weren’t about to be now. Hyrendell was built to be defensible, and they were convinced they would never fall.”

It made sense. The high elves were well known, colloquially, for being a stubborn race. Caelan realised it would have been difficult to try and tell them that their thinking wasn’t infallible.

“So everyone just sat in their houses and let the rest of the country die?” Micah asked, with a hint of bitterness. It was understandable, Micah’s mother had lost everything in the war. It only made sense that some of that trauma had been passed down, no matter how well Karsi Blackwood tried to hide it away.

“Not everyone.” Lin shot back, almost too quickly. “Just… most people.”

Micah was quiet for a moment, and Caelan was tempted to change the subject, stop the awkward silence that had fallen over them, but then Lin spoke again.

“Plus, we’re a university town. Lot’s of magic users that will probably stop people pretty quick. Should they have gone to help? Yeah, they should. But… Sometimes it’s like talking to a brick wall. There’s… a distinct lack of empathy in this city some days. Or years.”

Micah huffed, hitting his head back against the wall behind him. “But magic supporters would have turned the tide of the war. Mama always says they were the best unit in the war but I’m sure that it was just because they were one of the only ones that could have melee and magic fighters. And all the magic users were stuck up and wanted to stay in their cushty little office positions.”

Something flashed across Lin’s eyes, something Caelan couldn’t really put into words. As soon as it was gone it had been so fleeting that Caelan couldn’t quite work out whether he had seen it in the first place.

“Well, if we’re being honest about this, there weren’t many more melee fighters that could have survived being in the same unit as magic fighters that weren’t already in the Firewalkers.” Caelan added, looking over at Micah lazily. 

A gasp came from the other side of the kitchen, and everything suddenly happened at once. Lin was holding up his hand, crimson blood pouring down his forearm. The knife he had been using to cut onions had slipped and gone into his hand, and instead of doing anything about it he was sat staring at the blood welling from the cut. 

It hit Caelan harder than he thought it would. The sight of blood against his skin, the almost calm way that he dealt with it despite the lump in Caelan’s throat.

The half-elf was on his feet in seconds, moving across the room at a speed he hoped was semi-casual but wasn’t stupid enough to think that it wasn’t noticable. He took Lin’s hand, starting to sing quietly and trying to swallow down the panic to allow him to rest his hand across the cut. He tried not to think of how warm the blood covering his fingers was as he poured as much magic as he could into the cut.

“Sorry… sorry, my hand slipped.” Lin explained, and his voice was somewhat calming. The fact that he wasn’t panicking as much as Caelan really helped, and Caelan really didn’t want to be the only one freaking out in this situation.

He kept up his singing even after the cut was all healed up, without even a scar to show it was there. It didn’t take much longer for the blood on his hand to disappear, leaving no trace that it had ever been there.

“Are you two okay?” Micah asked, and it was only when he began speaking that Caelan realised how close he had been the whole time. He probably could have gotten Lin healed and cleaned up much quicker, but he had let Caelan do it. The half-elf wasn’t really sure what he felt about that.

“I’m fine.” Lin sighed, looking over his hand carefully, as if he was amazed at the magic that had just been displayed. Although, that wasn’t the first time that the elf seemed over excited about any magic used around him. “It was only a small cut, it just bled a lot.”

A lie. Caelan knew it was a lie. He could see how deep the cut had been.

“Caelan? How are you feeling?” Micah asked, and Caelan felt his hand gently touching his elbow. He didn’t want to admit how comforting it really was.

“I’m good, thank you. Just wanted to make sure that it wasn’t as bad as it looked.” Caelan breathed, amazed at how he managed to keep a reasonably calm voice throughout. “Which, it isn’t. Which is good.” Well, at least his tone was somewhat normal. His words certainly weren’t by the sound of it.

“Well, the two of you should sit down so I can finish food.” Micah announced, and no matter how much the two of them protested, they knew that he wouldn’t take no for an answer.

It was strange for Caelan to be the only one awake. He had to stay completely still, regulating his breathing, because he knew that Lin would come out of his trance at the slightest irregularity. It was something that had happened a few times in the past, he had gone to get some water and Lin’s eyes had bolted open immediately, asking him if he was okay.

It was possibly a little unsettling, but after the first couple of times Lin had agreed to sleep with his eyes closed, at least, which made the feeling of sleeping next to someone who was only meditating slightly less concerning. 

It helped that Lin wasn’t just lying on his back like he was in a coffin like a lot of people did. He didn’t look like someone who would be good at cuddling, but his long limbs wrapped around Caelan as soon as he got into bed, and it pleased some small part of his brain that just made him want to nest up with Lin. It was a part of him that hadn’t surfaced in nearly a decade, and he didn’t want to think too hard about it returning. The sheer panic that had ridden up in his chest was enough to let him know he had quite possibly fallen in a little deeper than he thought he had.

It wasn’t long before he felt the familiar twitching that told him that Lin was in one of his nightmares. He really shouldn’t feel guilty about them, but that small part that he was trying so hard to force back down kept telling him that if he had been there sooner, woken up as soon as Lin left, then he wouldn’t be having them. The stubborn voice in his brain that tried to remind him that if Lin had just stayed put he wouldn’t be having them either was starting to pop up less and less, no matter how hard he tried.

There was something Caelan could do though. Something that he remembered his mother doing when his own nightmares took hold. He had no way of knowing whether it helped the magical nightmares that Lin was suffering with right now, but it felt a lot better doing something than just leaving him twitching on the bed.

He managed to shuffle around in Lin’s arms, until he faced the elf. He couldn’t quite extract his arms entirely, but he could wriggle them so he pulled Lin in close, and pushed his body up slightly so he could rest his lips on the top of Lin’s forehead.

It was an old song, one his mother’s clan had sung for centuries. One that was sung to small children to chase bad dreams away. A little calming magic mixed in with the words, and if anything worked Caelan knew this would be it.

It was a song he hadn’t sung in nearly ten years.


	3. A Dagger for a Life

Lin couldn’t remember why he was sat at his desk reading military strategy, but if he tried to think to hard about it it sent his head into a spin, so he decided not to. All he knew was that he was angry, and the words weren’t going in, but reading was the best he could do right now.

A small knock at the door brought him out of his thoughts, and for a second he hesitated. If he turned around he would see a face swallowed by fire, a person who he desperately wanted to hold but knew that he couldn’t.

A splitting pain shot across his skull, and he would have winced if he was capable of it. But he hadn’t winced the first time, so he wouldn’t wince now.

No matter how much he wanted to turn around, his body wouldn’t allow it. Instead his left hand raised, middle finger sticking up, and he went straight back to reading.

“Let me in. I need to ask you something.” That voice of fire and distortion, stopping the true tone Lin knew was pleading. His head swam with the mixture of what he was experiencing right now, and the blanks that his memories automatically filled in for him. 

Except there shouldn’t be memories, not of things occuring in the present.

He turned his chair, staring out to the window and beyond. He was supposed to be shocked, but it all seemed far too familiar for that. A figure crouched at his window, cape obscuring the hard lines of his body against the night beyond. A figure with no hair and fire for a face.

“What the fuck did you do to your hair?” His voice came out without him wanting it to, asking about probably the least shocking thing happening right now. The figure pointed to his ears, and Lin almost tripped over as his body moved forward without his input, following a set path like a train car.

He fiddled with the lock, finally opening it to let the man inside along with the freezing rain that hammered against his skin in protest.

“What the fuck did you do to your hair?” he repeated as Ro dropped in through the window gracefully, no sound coming from him despite the number of weapons hanging off his belt. His clothes were… odd. More casual than any Lin had seen in his wardrobe before, almost common in their appearance. Ro wasn’t planning of staying at home any longer.

He giggled nervously, one hand coming up and through the inferno of his face to rub against his head. His once knee-length hair had been cut to a short stubble, barely enough to see the colour that his mother had always adored.

“You can’t tell anyone. I’m leaving. Tonight. I’m going across the mountains and joining the fight.”

Lin’s brain whirred. Ro had been given a place at the school, in one of the top offices discussing defense strategies if the fight did make it over the Hartiz Ridge. But that…

“There’s a group I found. They’re stationed right down on the front lines. The Firewalkers.”

Lin’s chest felt like it exploded. Memories of what he felt that day, the panic at losing his sibling, mixed with the utterance of the name that came from Micah’s mouth earlier that… No. There was no one called Micah. This was the first time he had ever experienced this. The lack of sleep must be getting to him.

“You should come with me.” Ro urged, and the speed at which Lin’s heart was beating only got worse. Sadness, adrenaline, a pure unbridled fear that Lin had never quite felt before. “There are generals stationed outside Braedon. You can’t cast magic but there’s no one in the country as smart as you. You can really help us win, you know that as well as I do. Plus, I need someone to watch my back.”

Lin bit his lip, looking away from the burning heat of the fire in front of him. A small part of his brain screamed at him that he was avoiding Ro’s eyes.

“I can’t, you know that Dad…”

“Fuck Dad.” Ro spat, and it sent a shiver of fear through Lin’s soul. “Do you think he’s going to let me join a unit on the front lines? Do you think he’s going to even let me out the house if he sees what I did to my hair? We go in silence, tonight.”

Lin’s heart broke in two. On the one hand he had done enough to make his father hate him and this would only beat down that relationship further. He would lose everything he had spent over half a century building on one rash decision. On the other… Ro was impulsive. He would run straight into the jaws of death if it looked like fun. How would he act if he didn’t have Lin holding him back.

Ro’s hand found his, squeezing tightly. His skin burnt on contact, so hot he was amazed the fire in Ro’s face hadn’t spread to him.

“Come with me. Get out of this hellhole. Start from the bottom in one of the tactical units, work your way up. With your brain you’ll be running the army in no time.” And the immodest part of Lin knew it was true. While all of the Chasso children were smart, everyone knew Lin was the smartest.

But that didn’t help with the fear that seemed to flow through his veins like treacle.

“But… what if we…”

“What if we what?” Ro snapped. “Die? Then we fucking die, Lin. But we die doing something important. We’re not left rotting in this dump. Dying a hero is… infinitely better than this, right?”

And he was right. Lin had a chance. A chance to be something more than his curse, something more than a failure. A chance to make a real, noticeable difference in the world.

One nod was all that it took. And he really, really believed that he could remember Ro’s smile.

The shift in position made Lin feel sick. He knew that he hadn’t teleported, the sudden appearance of tiredness in his bones and pain in his feet told him he had been on the road for days. 

He was stood in the rain again, somehow feeling the cold of it sinking into his bones alongside the burning heat of Ro’s proximity.

They were stood outside the commander's tent in Braedon, trying to find some privacy among the bustling of soldiers being given new orders. He remembered the tiredness in Ro’s eyes, not having slept for eight days and it was showing. They had just managed to get Lin accepted into the command unit and now…

And now Ro was leaving. Lin knew it would come, he wasn’t stupid, but he thought he would have more time. He thought there would be a few down days, days they could spend saying goodbye, before Ro left for possibly the last time.

They stood there, face to face, unsure what to say. The longest that Lin had been without Ro had been three days, and now… 

“You can’t leave.” Lin whispered, voice cracking despite his best efforts. “You can’t go, not yet, not…”

“You’ll be okay” Ro soothed, and Lin wished that fucking distortion wasn’t ruining it for him.

“I’m not worried about me.” he choked through tears, for once in his life not caring about everyone around staring at him. “I’m worried about you.”

Ro chuckled, an empty noise that grated against Lin’s skull. “Well, I am worried about you, too. But look, I got you a present.”

The dagger appeared in mid air, summoned to Ro’s hand by magic more powerful than most of these people had ever seen in their lives. It was long, perfectly balanced, with the lingering smell of blade oil that usually clung to Ro’s skin. He passed it over carefully, closing Lin’s fingers around the grip.

“This will protect you even when I’m not around. Find a holster for it that keeps the blade free. Keep it close to you.”

Lin waited less than a second before almost falling forward, not caring about the flames and the heat that engulfed him as he did. He felt his skin blister and peel, the scent of burning hair surrounding him but… But feeling Ro in his arms again was worth it. It had been too long, and he would take whatever he could get.

Lin woke up warm, and for a moment he was terrified that he was still in the dream with Ro’s burning arms around him. It took a moment for him to understand that this was, actually, real life. Caelan had obviously turned over in his sleep, and was lying with his arms wrapped around him. It was sweet, and calmed Lin down in a way that he couldn’t quite put into words. Caelan, in his sleep, had turned to hug him. It was something that happened rarely, at best.

But it did poise a problem. Lin usually didn’t really mind staying in bed with Caelan all night, but right now he just… wanted to get up. His mind was restless, and thus so was his body. He needed to get out of here, do something that wasn’t just lie down and think.

It must have taken about half an hour before Caelan moved enough to let Lin wriggle out from underneath him. He took a few more minutes sitting on the edge of the bed, trying to listen out for any sound of Caelan waking up before standing and heading through to his bathroom.

He knew, deep down, that there was no reason for him to be burnt. But he looked over his skin anyway, checking his arms and his chest for evidence of the heat that had spread throughout his body in the dream. His skin was unmarred, of course, apart from that tattoos that stood starkly against his pale complexion.

And the necklace. The gold necklace with the pitch black void in the centre.

It hadn’t always looked like that. When Lin had bought it the gem had been full of colour, a deep red flecked with bright splashes of colour that seemed to move and shimmer when you weren’t quite paying attention. He had spotted it being offered by a refugee of the war, not long after he got his first paycheck from the army. He didn’t know how much it was worth, but he knew he needed it, and the seller seemed over the moon when Lin handed him an entire purse full of money.

He was told that the necklace held a rare power, in that it could protect it’s wearer from death, but only once. A part of him thought it might be a lie, some tall tale spun by a desperate man in order to sell some old, useless antique. But doing some research in quite frankly tiny library in the village; and it seemed to check out.

Ro had seemed pleased when he received the necklace, too. Lin had never meant for it to be as an exchange for his dagger, but he supposed that was what it looked like. Ro had handed him a form of protection, a way to keep himself safe. And he wanted nothing more than to give Ro something that could, hopefully, keep him safe as well.

He still remembered the sheer panic the first time Ro returned with the amulet activated. It was after his time in the war had ended, and Lin had returned back home. Ro had turned back up at his window the same way that he did the night that they left. He had remained quiet, not wanting the rest of the family knowing of his return. 

Lin had cried when he saw the amulet. Knowing what that black colour meant. Ro had died, and he didn’t even know how. He knew now that Ro would never speak of it. He had hung onto his sibling and cried until his voice was hoarse. Looking back, he didn’t seem to remember Ro reciprocating it. Just a quick greeting before he got onto the reason he was really there.

Half of Lin wished he had seen it at the time, and half envied that past Lin who fell into his arms without question. 

He turned to leave the bathroom, heading back into the bedroom and across to one of his wardrobes. He wasn’t… worried, per se, but he knew there were things in there that he absolutely could not have Caelan and Micah finding. 

The Firewalkers had been a small unit. If Caelan and Micah were the children of members… they probably knew Ro. And that… Lin couldn’t risk that. 

Who knows what they had been told about him. What stories had been passed around the campfire, before being told to children in their homes. Lin couldn’t risk those stories tarnishing the reputation he had built up for so long. The box would have to move, somewhere safe, somewhere neither Micah nor Caelan could find it.

The box was small, but ornately ingrained with a bright red ruby. Lin had received it as a present… even he couldn’t remember how long ago. But the box wasn’t important. It was what was inside it.

Lin carefully carried it through to his office, placing it on his desk before sitting down in front of it. His fingers ran across the inlays, trying to commit them to memory knowing he wouldn’t be able to get it out anywhere near as often as he did before the two of them moved in.

He opened it slowly, careful not to disrupt the contents too much. Some of them were decades old, and he lacked the proper magic to keep them as good as new. Sure, he could take them to a local magic shop but… they were just too personal. He didn’t want anyone else seeing them.

Laying on the top was a battered piece of paper, folded into quarters to be able to fit. Pulling it out he carefully unfolded it, laying it out on the table.

All three of them had been taught how to draw as children. Their father allowed it as it taught them the fine motor control needed to draw ritual circles, and their mother loved the opportunity to study some of the less academic subjects. Whereas Lin had taken that hobby and flourished, Ro had been pulled away to learn his magic before he got much further than sketching.

That wasn’t to say Ro wasn’t very good at it. He was. The picture in front of him was almost like a mirror.

Ro stood to the right of a human man, slightly shorter than him in a way that allowed him to rest his elbow easily on his shoulder. He didn’t know much about the man except he was Ro’s immediate superior. Ro had named him Lerendi - a brother by choice, not by blood. 

On the other side of Lerendi was Isilde. She was a mountain of a woman, towering even taller than Ro and with biceps the size of his waist. She had been named after the beauty of starlight reflecting off a lake - a name used by generations of Star Elves to refer to the true love of their life.

Lin had nearly hit the floor when Ro told him. Their father would never, ever allow them to marry someone who wasn’t an elf. And a human? Ro had decided to give his heart to a human, when he was too young to be deciding such things.

“Why should I care?” Ro had told him. “I’m going to be married off to whoever pays Dad enough money. I’ll never love my spouse. But Isilde? I love Isilde.”

Lin didn’t know their real names, of course. He had asked Ro to keep them secret. Lin already knew the name of one person he was sending into their certain doom, he didn’t want to know any others.

He wondered if they were still alive. He wondered whether they knew of Ro’s death. Were they at the fake funeral that was held in the city? A part of him hoped they weren’t. It wasn’t as if he would have been able to find them. If he had… then would he have even invited them to the real funeral? He really wasn’t sure.   
The rest of the box was filled with whatever jewellery Ro had been carrying on him when he died. He hadn’t removed any his sibling had been wearing, no, he would be sent to the next life in that. All of the piercings which decorated his eyes, and his nose, and his mouth, and his ears. Whenever Ro came home there was always another piercing, or three. The last time Lin saw him he had counted twenty six on his face and ears alone.

And finally there was a token. A small token that Ro had always carried with him. Lin had never been religious, how could he be? How could he be okay with Gods that allowed such a young child to suffer like he had? And Ro? Ro had told him he agreed, that he would no longer worship the Gods in solidarity.

But he had found a token on Ro’s body, small and made of solid gold. On the one face was a carving of a woman, holding out one hand to hold a miniature replica of the sun. Lin knew that if she was coloured she would be a dark-skinned elf, with beautiful flowing ginger hair. It was the symbol of his mother’s goddess, one which Ro had grown up following.

On the other side was a carving of a shield, with a fist in the middle of it. Lin knew from his research that it was the symbol of Ios, the God of protection and sacrifice. It made sense, really. A lot of soldiers worshipped Ios, it shouldn’t be surprising that Ro had picked it up too.

It stung, keeping it. It was a symbol of how Ro had broken a promise, how Ro had moved on from those days of being inseperable as children. But in the end? It was Ro’s. And that’s why Lin would keep it.

He replaced everything with the care it deserved, careful not to bend any of the jewellery or tear the drawing. Once the box was closed and everything hidden away he moved over to the corner of the room, holding up a hand and placing it gently onto the wall. This was a place not even his father had known when it had been his office, a change to the building requirements he had asked of the builders when he was a small child.

It worked fully mechanically, which was perfect for Lin. Four bricks pulled apart to reveal a small hiding space, it had once been big enough for Lin to crawl into but he had far grown out of that. Instead he reached in, leaving the box gently on the bottom.

Here, it would be safe. But it wouldn’t be forgotten.


	4. Of Definitions and Labels

Micah lazed back on the sofa in Lin’s living room, legs stretched out lazily on Caelan’s lap as he closed his eyes and enjoyed the sun streaming through the windows onto his skin. If he wasn’t so damn comfortable he might have made the effort to go and sunbathe outside properly.

Eh, when the sun moved so it was no longer shining on him. Then he would go and seek it out. Sort of like a cat, he supposed, but his mother had always joked he was more kitten than baby. What with his ears, and tail, and the way his pupils got big when he got mad or excited.

The only problem with moving outside was that Caelan would refuse to come. Whereas Micah loved the sun, the half-elf seemed to avoid it at all cost. No wonder he was always so pale despite his mother’s skin tone. Apparently he just burnt up immediately, and no matter how much Micah tried to persuade him to just come out for a little bit it always fell on deaf ears.

So for now he was perfectly happy to stretch out on a comfortable sofa, pointing and flexing his feet as he tried to get comfortable.

It wasn’t long until he started to get bored, wanting more attention from Caelan than he was currently getting.

“Can you rub my feet?” he asked with a lilt in his voice, gently prodding at Caelan’s side with his toes. Caelan squirmed at the contact, swatting lazily at Micah’s shin while keeping his attention trained on his book.

“I’m not rubbing your feet.” he responded, not really paying attention and that was a criminal offence, in Micah’s eyes.

“C’mon, please.” Micah whined, wriggling his legs on top of Caelan’s lap to try and make him pay more attention. It was unsuccessful.

“No chance. Go and whine at Lin, he’ll do it for you.” Caelan answered, but his hand still fell to Micah’s shin to start slowly rubbing his hand over his shins. It was a tiny gesture, one that probably wouldn’t have registered for anyone else.

But Micah had been around Caelan enough to recognise the simple action, Caelan talking without words.

Please Stay.

And Micah would. It wasn’t just because he didn’t want to bother Lin, it was that right now he was enjoying his time with Caelan.

Their relationship had been… complicated, to say the least. Micah could remember having the biggest crush on him when he was a kid, but Caelan had already had his own family going and he knew that it would never be reciprocated. 

And then after Leliana and Maria were gone… Well, Caelan changed. He dropped into a depression so deep Micah was sure he would never get out of it again. There had been a few years, between Caelan’s depression and Micah travelling the country where they had never seen each other. Micah got the occasional update from Caelan’s parents, sure, but that wasn’t the same as seeing him.

And then three years ago they had bumped into each other again, in one of the small towns in the middle of the country. Caelan was looking better than he had before the death of his family, he had gained back all of the weight he had lost and his face was much less gaunt. It wasn’t long to figure out why, when Micah offered him a drink he had declined, mentioning that he was completely teetotal. It had been… a relief. It wasn’t that Micah didn’t dabble in some lighter drugs from time to time, but Caelan? He had gone off the deep end, and hard. 

That night they had slept together for the first time. And although Caelan had gone early the next morning, he had left with a promise he wouldn’t leave it so long again.

Which was, honestly, a promise that he had kept. They met up around the country, both planned an accidentally, and more often than not they would fall into bed with one another. It had become a… ritual of sorts. They would meet again, fool around, and then move on with their lives.

And then when Hiroki had died he had turned up at the funeral, held Micah close as he cried. He didn’t talk, didn’t try to offer words of condolences like other people did. Just lay with him in bed when he was tired of caring for his mother, tired of putting on a brave face when they held their own funeral for his parent’s old teammate.

After a week Caelan had told him he would be going down south over the winter, seeing if there was any leads into the men he had threatened to kill down there. He had kissed Micah goodbye, and then ruined it by messing up Micah’s hair like he did when they were kids.

They had no name for it, no definition for this strange relationship they had, but Micah didn’t mind. He never pushed, never asked Caelan for more because he didn’t want to scare him away. Would he want to date him? Yeah, in a heart beat. But he was fine with this, too.

He was worried that was going to stop now Lin was in the picture, but it hadn’t. Caelan had come into his room a few days after he had arrived, with the same predatory grin on his face that never failed to make Micah weak at the knees. 

And so it had settled into a kind of pattern, Micah would fool around with both of them separately. They definitely knew what was going on, if the jokes made around the dinner table was anything to go by. A little voice in his head told him that he needed to sit down and communicate, but he didn’t want it to blow up in his face. They were all happy how they were right now, why would he risk ruining all of that? It would be stupid. 

He could continue on like this in the long term, he felt. He had always preferred living life loosely, never planning further than a couple of days ahead. 

He wouldn’t stay here forever, he knew that. He knew that accepting a life with Caelan meant saying goodbye to ever being a husband, or a father, and that wasn’t something he could even begin to consider. But for now? This was fun. And it didn’t look like the fun would be stopping any time soon.

Spending time with Lin was always different to spending time with Caelan. Whereas Caelan still shows him affection in his own way, Lin would almost smother him with affection.

Micah loved it. 

He was lying with his head in Lin’s lap, the other man running his hands through his hair as Micah’s tail swished happily and he purred loudly at the attention. A part of him felt maybe a little guilty that he seemed to have completely pulled Lin away from the sketches he was doing, but it was a very small part and the side of him that was enjoying the attention drowned it out quickly. 

Lin always wanted to talk a lot more than Caelan did, as well. Whereas Caelan was happy with sitting in silence, and Micah didn’t mind that per se, he just much preferred filling that silence with talk.

They spoke about anything and everything. Micah told tales of his time on the road, or myths and legends that his mother had taught him as a kid. It was part of his profession to be a storyteller, and he was proud of it. Proud of the way Lin seemed absolutely enraptured with him, hanging on his every word. There were times his hands stopped moving in Micah’s hair he was so distracted by the imagery Micah was weaving with his words. It did much more to Micah’s ego than he cared to admit, not that he was complaining.

It was almost like being in paradise, having two men giving him nearly all of their attention all day every day. Not that he didn’t leave him alone once in a while, it was just nice knowing that the option was there for him when he needed it.

Lin would tell him stories, too, once Micah got tired of telling his own stories. They were mostly old elvish legends, ones that were obviously passed down from parent to child and Micah had never heard of them. A few myths and legends of various Gods, and whereas Micah knew a lot of them the way that Lin told them was… refreshing in a way. With the words of someone who may not have been there, but wasn’t too many generations away from the people who were. He had so many more little facts and facets that Micah had never heard before, and he was already starting to work them into his own stories when the time came for him to tell it again.

That morning Lin was talking about some of his experiences growing up in the house, how he used to lock himself away in the family library with food he had snuck from the kitchen for days on end when he found a new series of books he wanted to read. Micah had never really found the appeal of long sessions of reading. He liked the occasional book, of course, but spending a week doing nothing but reading seemed quite incredibly boring.

It almost made him double take when Lin changed topic so abruptly it gave him whiplash. If he were to really think about it, he could almost admit that it was better this way. It gave him a lot less time to start panicking about what it might mean.

“What are we?” he asked quietly, while he was drawing lazy patterns on Micah’s chest. 

There were a million clever responses on Micah’s lips, an unnerving number of jokes and quips which were meant to detract away from the seriousness of the situation.

He had never been in a relationship before. He mostly just slept with people one or two times in some inn somewhere before they went their separate ways. The closest he had ever gotten was whatever he and Caelan had in the last couple of years. 

And here was this gorgeous elf, who lived in a literal mansion, relaxing with him in a drawing room while they waited for a home cooked meal to finish.

It was… paradise.

“We’re whatever you want us to be, babe.” he finally answered, ears twitching in curiosity as he looked up at Lin. It was an odd angle to be having such an important conversation, but he liked the… closeness of it all.

“Okay, that doesn’t help” Lin chuckled, and Micah noticed the slight dip of his ears showing the worry he was feeling. “I mean… people who are just sleeping around don’t do this, do they? Did you want something more?”

Micah took a moment to consider it. 

“Boyfriends?” he asked hesitantly, looking up to Lin with big eyes. “Or just ‘dating’? With no real names on each other? What does Caelan think about it?”

Lin took another moment to pause and think, before smiling wide. 

“Boyfriends… sounds good. And… he suggested it. He doesn’t mind as long as it’s you. We’re… practically there anyway, right? We live together, and all the rest of the things that go with that.”

“We don’t… need to put a name on it?” Micah suggested, before regretting it when Lin’s face screwed up. “Or, if you want to put a name on it that’s fine too. Shall we say boyfriends? Boyfriends works, right?”

Lin’s face relaxed almost instantly, smiling down at Micah before leaning over in order to pull him into a kiss. Micah smiled back into the kiss, shuffling up on the sofa to sit more fully in his lap than he had been before. 

“Boyfriends is perfect.” Lin smiled, wrapping his arms tightly around Micah’s waist and pulling him close. “Just like you. You’re perfect, too.”

Micah grinned, resting his forehead against Lin’s gently. “I know I am.”

Lin’s bed was bigger than the one Micah was staying in. It was plenty big enough for three or maybe for people, and Micah couldn’t help but wonder whether Lin had tried it before. It was comfortable, too, with just the kind of mattress that Micah loved. He wondered whether it was some sort of magic, after all he knew from experience that he preferred a much, much different mattress to Caelan and Caelan didn’t seem to complain about having to sleep in it every night. 

The other wonderful thing about it was the number of pillows and blankets that seemed to be permanently in place on the bed. It satisfied his instinct to nest, along with his instinct to be somewhere warm and safe, and he loved being able to bury himself under the blankets and talk to Caelan through them despite the way it muffled their voices. Caelan would just have to deal with it. 

He shuffled over onto his front, stretching his legs out below him and his arms up above to poke out of the top of the duvet next to Caelan’s head. He knew that the half-elf was too claustrophobic to come underneath the blankets with him, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t continue to bug him from down here.

“Come hug me.” he whined, wriggling his hips a little to try and force his tail to wrap around Caelan’s waist. He couldn’t move his tail, per se, but he seemed to be able to gently suggest where it went, and today it seemed to be particularly suggestible because it quickly moved up to pull him in tightly.

“Come up here and I will happily give you a proper hug” Caelan slurred back, and Micah could tell he was nearly half asleep. It was always a particular skill of his, to fall asleep in a second no matter where he was. Micah really, really wished he could, too. But soon he would have to go back to his own bed, and whereas it was comfortable, and he had been slowly hoarding all of the pillows and blankets he could find, it still wasn’t as nice as this bed.

They hadn’t really discussed all sharing a bed yet, even though Micah was fairly certain that the three of them were officially dating now. It was another case of just… not really wanting to rock the boat by asking something about it. Even with as much as it saddened him every time he had to crawl out of bed when it came time to properly sleep, he knew it would hurt more if he caused an argument and had to put a stop to this thing altogether.

But Lin was still in his office working through some paperwork, which meant he still had some time to enjoy lazing around like this.

He shuffled closer to Caelan, scrambling to lie on top of him and flop down heavily. He grinned as Caelan huffed out a breath of disapproval, and he could understand why. Micah had always had more meat on his bones than Caelan had, despite being shorter. He wasn’t fat, not at all, but he definitely wasn’t as skinny or defined as Caelan. Add onto that the fact that Caelan struggled to lift things even a ten year old could lift, and it was probably a little mean of him to do that. But Caelan didn’t seem to protest too loudly, just a quiet whine as he brought his arms up around Micah’s shoulders. Micah rested his cheek on Caelan’s shoulder, starting to purr loudly in contentment.

“How do you put up with this bed if you hate being under the covers?” he asked with a smile, not quite content to keep silent this time. 

“I just don’t go under them, Micah, it’s not wizardry” Caelan responded, and Micah swore he could hear him rolling his eyes.

“But don’t you end up like… pulling them up over your head in the middle of the night? Nesting instincts taking over?” Micah asked curiously, one ear twitching enough to tap incessantly on Caelan’s chin. If he minded, he at least didn’t say anything.

“I don’t nest like you do. I’m not gonna burrow myself in like a hamster in the middle of the night. If I did that would make my claustrophobia even more hellish.” Caelan responded with a chuckle, starting to rub small circles on Micah’s back. If he wasn’t purring before he would surely be purring now.

“Yeah it feels pretty self-destructive.” Micah yawned, daring to close his eyes for a moment. “I should go back to bed. I’m going to fall asleep.” 

There was a moment’s pause, a moment where Micah’s anxiety would have started to rise if it wasn’t for how tired he was.

“I’m sure Lin wouldn’t mind you staying.” Caelan added, and Micah was so close he could feel his words vibrate up through his chest. “If you wanted to sleep with us. At least for tonight. We can discuss it more tomorrow.”

Micah was endlessly glad that Caelan had brought it up, and he was even more pleased at what specifically he said. There was nothing in the world that he wanted more, right now, than to be able to sleep through until morning in this bed, with the two people he could finally call his boyfriends.

Lin snuck into the room in the early hours of the morning. He hadn’t heard Micah leave, and didn’t want to interrupt the two of them if they didn’t want him around. And plus, if Caelan did fall asleep, at least he would have someone around if he woke up from a nightmare. 

But now it was getting really close to sunrise, and whereas Lin didn’t mind pulling all nighters, Caelan had made it clear he didn’t like him doing it. It was getting close to the deadline, so he risked to poke his head in through the door to look.

He assumed Micah was the huge pile of purring blankets in the middle of the bed, and could easily see Caelan had kicked off most of the covers and had his arm around Micah through the sheets. Lin could understand, Caelan sometimes had trouble with his body heat, and Micah was like a heater wrapped up in a small bundle.

Lin knew he should go and sleep somewhere else, maybe in Micah’s bed. But… he couldn’t fight against the pull of going to nest with the two men. He would stay away from touching them, that seemed like it would be crossing too many boundaries. 

But surely they wouldn’t mind him sliding into bed next to them. He stripped down to his boxers quickly, grabbing some of the blankets that weren’t already commandeered by Micah. It wasn’t long until he was deep in a trance.

Less than ten minutes later Micah’s arm stuck out from his cave of pillows, grabbing Lin and pulling him closer. Lin didn’t protest.


	5. Memories

Caelan closed the door behind him quietly, not wanting to wake anyone in the house up. He knew it was later than he usually got back, but the job had run on longer than he thought it was going to. He kicked off his shoes, resting them gently in the hallway on the rack that Leliana had bought for that exact purpose. The last time he had tracked mud in the glare he had gotten from her hadn’t been remotely worth it.

He turned into the front room, meaning to sit down and start cleaning his blades, before he spotted Leliana sat on the sofa.

She was curled up under a blanket, a book half-read in hand. She was already smiling up at him, of course, he had never been able to sneak around her no matter how hard he tried. 

The candlelight sparkled in her eyes as she smiled, and she looked more beautiful than he remembered. Then again, every time he saw her she looked more beautiful than he remembered. Her hair had been pulled back into a large, puffy bun on her head, although curly strands were already escaping to frame her face in a halo of frizz. Soon there would be enough that it would bother her and she would fix it, but right now she didn’t seem to notice.

“You didn’t have to stay up for me.” Caelan smiled, sliding in next to her and kissing her hello. One arm automatically went around her shoulders, fitting around her like that’s where it was meant to be. The two of them fitting together perfectly, like two halves of the same jigsaw. 

“Mmhm, I didn’t have to, but I did” Leliana responded, leaning up into the kiss and starting to purr as she shifted to half sit in his lap, adjusting her blanket easily over the two of them. “I wanted to sit and read, anyway. Plus, I missed you. I wanted to see you before I went to bed.”

Caelan couldn’t help but smile, his own purr starting easily as he leant forward to nuzzle their noses together.

It was strange. Usually he would tell her about the job he had just done, how successful he was or if anything didn’t run quite as smooth as he had expected it to. But right now? He couldn’t for the life of him remember anything about the assassination he had just carried out. He couldn’t remember who died, or how, or who had hired him. He didn’t know how much money was supposed to be in his pocket in payment. He shook his head once, twice, trying to get his memories back in order but they just didn’t come.

“Are you okay?” Leliana asked, looking up with wide, brown eyes. She looked concerned, worried as to what was going on in his head. 

“Yeah, just tired.” Caelan deflected, worried for a second that she would see right through his lie. “What are you reading?”

Leliana’s eyes narrowed, and for a second Caelan thought he was done for. But after a second she smiled, looking back down to her book and holding it up to him.

“It’s about a man who’s working tirelessly to avenge his wife and children.” she explained, and Caelan tried to read the words on the back. It must have been in a language he didn’t speak, because he didn’t even begin to understand them.

“Maybe he should have been good enough to protect them while they were alive?” he joked, and Leliana tutted between a chuckle of her own.

“The sentiment is sweet enough as it is.” Leliana shot back, sticking out her tongue. Caelan was about to return the same, but his eyes zeroed in on the skin of her tongue. It was… redder, than it should be. Something was wrong.

“Is your mouth bleeding?” he asked suddenly, and only got another worried look in return. Was he actually going mad? Leliana seemed to think that he was, at least, if the look on her face was anything to go by.

Her hand went to her mouth, touching at her gums and Caelan could see her teeth had been knocked out. That… didn’t make sense. They had been there earlier. But at least when Leliana probed at her mouth it would prove to her that something was wrong.

But it didn’t. She pulled away her hand, looked at her fingers covered in blood, and… nothing.

“No? Are you okay? Did you get hit by a spell?” she asked, seeming more concerned about him than the blood that was now starting to trickle out of the corner of her mouth.

“No? Leliana, you’re bleeding. Does it not hurt, can you not…” his attention was torn away from her mouth as blood started to bloom on her nightgown. A detached part of his psyche told him that it was almost beautiful, bright red blossoming across white lace over the dark skin below.

“Leliana?” he choked, hand coming up to cover the wound that was hidden beneath her clothes. “Leliana, you’re... “ 

Panic took over, and he wished he knew magic, wished he could do something to help the situation.

“Leliana you need to heal yourself, quick. I can’t, you need…”

But his panic wasn’t reflected on her face, it was nothing but confusion and concern. She took his face in her hands, trying to calm him down. Her hands were cold, and wet with her own blood.

“Caelan, look at me. Caelan, Caelan you need… Caelan!”

“Caelan?” 

The voice was different. Deeper. Clipped accent that told of a higher class upbringing than the one Leliana had.

But it had the same worry. The same care underneath that she had had. But he didn’t want to focus on that.

Lin’s hands were on his face, where hers had been. A gentle brush of fingers against his cheek. Bringing him out of the nightmare slowly, but not soon enough.

“M’okay.” he managed to slur out, groggily taking Lin’s hand and squeezing it tightly in a way he hoped was at least a little reassuring. 

“You had a nightmare.” Lin explained, as if he wasn’t already painfully aware of that. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

Caelan sighed, opening his eyes to see Lin’s concerned face staring back at him. Something was clasped tightly around his leg, and he realised that it was Micah’s tail. At least the tiefling was still fast asleep, he hadn’t disturbed him as well. A part of him wondered just how much noise he had actually been making. It seemed far too easy to wake Lin up from his trance.

“Just… stay.” he finally sighed. It was a moment of weakness, a moment of honesty that he rarely allowed himself. “Stay here with me. At least until morning.”

He heard Lin sigh quietly, and he knew that he wanted something more active than just “stay with me until I wake up.”

But there wasn’t anything. Caelan would still have to deal with the nightmares, still have to deal with the images left over in his head. Still have to watch his wife be seemingly stabbed to death in front of his eyes. Not matter how hard he tried to forget his bain kept supplying him with reminders as to how exactly it happened. The small details that he thought he had forgotten, like her teeth being scattered about the room. They were all still in there. They would keep being dredged up and thrust into the front of his brain.

“Stop thinking about it.” Lin soothed, gently pushing some hair back from his face. “I can see in your eyes you’re thinking about it. Think of something else.”

Caelan wanted to bite back, tell him it wasn’t that easy to just not think about it. But he knew he was just trying to help. Shouting at him wasn’t going to help anyone or anything.

Lin quietly lay back down on the bed, using a gentle press on Caelan’s shoulder to roll him over to sleep on his chest. It was strange, it wasn’t something they usually did. Usually it was the other way around,

Lin was too skinny for it to be particularly comfortable, but he wouldn’t complain. It was the closeness he was craving, that and the heartbeat he could hear thudding strong in his chest. Telling him that despite the odds, Lin was still alive.

He tried not to jump when he felt the vibration in Lin’s chest. For a second he thought it might have been purring, but moments later Lin started to sing. It was quiet, obviously not wanting to wake Micah up if he could help it. But it was a song that he recognised, somewhere deep in his brain. As if it was sung to him when he was a child. He would ask about it, in the morning, if he remembered.

But for now he was fine to just sit back, relax, and listen to Lin sing. Maybe, just maybe, he could keep the nightmares at bay for tonight.

It was a couple of days later, a couple more nights of the three of them sharing the same bed. He never would of thought it would work out, he had never planned it to work out, but it did. The only slight problem was the amount of times he woke up in the night because he was too damn hot. Lin was enough of a space heater as it was, but Micah? Micah took it to another level.

Micah’s intended use as a distraction for Lin’s affections was working perfectly, too. Whereas Lin would spend what felt like all of his time with Caelan before, now he had Micah to take some of that time away. Not enough that Caelan felt neglected, and sometimes they all spent time together, but it meant Caelan could feel a lot less guilty about his alone time than he did before.

Not that he felt that guilty. But it eliminated the little that was there, anyway.

The two other men had been in the kitchen last he heard of them, Micah watching Lin prepare their food for the night. He could hear enough of the two of them to know they were chatting happily between them. He couldn’t quite make out the words, not yet, but he smiled anyway. It was… nice. Hearing the two of them just talk, and being happy about something. 

He headed along the corridor towards them. It wasn’t like he was trying to be stealthy, per se. It was just that… being stealthy was kind of his thing. It was hard to turn off, sometimes.

“... and apparently I just… headbutted her. Right in the back of the knee. I think it was the only time Mama ever told me off.” He heard Micah chuckle, and Lin laugh along with him.

It stopped him in his tracks.

He remembered that day. One of the first times Caelan and Leliana babysitted Micah. He had been six at the time, and was convinced he was going to marry Caelan. The only thing getting in the way was Leliana, so… Micah had decided to take matters into his own hands.

“How did she react to that?” Lin responded, and Caelan heard the joviality in his voice. He’d never met her, and he was still treating her like an old friend.

“At the time? Really well. She didn’t complain, and I thought I had successfully scared her off. It was only when I was older that she told me she thought I was a spoilt little bastard and she had decided right there and then to make sure she married Caelan so I couldn’t.” Micah huffed in response, and Caelan heard the tell tale signs of his fake pout. 

He rested his back against the wall, content to just sit and listen. It was… something he hadn’t experienced before. Hearing people talking about them in such a relaxed way. Usually people were telling him they were sorry, or how they had been taken too soon. If they talked of them at all. Most of the time people were too scared to even speak their name.

Which… in the end? Wasn’t fair. Leliana and Maria were bright, bright lights when they were alive. They deserved to be spoke about after death, their memories being honoured every step of the way. And for close to a decade, he had been holding him back.

At least… he thought he had. But Micah? It seemed like Micah enjoyed talking about them. Micah was doing a much better job honouring them than Caelan had been.

“They got me back though.” Micah continued, and Caelan couldn’t help but tune in. He was enjoying hearing these happy memories far too much. “When I was older. I think I was about… fifteen, sixteen? Maria was about three or four. We were at a big party at his parent’s house. And they asked me to go upstairs and try and get Maria to sleep. I thought easy, right?”

“I’m guessing that it wasn’t, because you’re telling this story.” Lin replied, voice practically dripping with sarcasm. 

“That was a rhetorical question. Let me talk.” Micah chastised, and Caelan heard Lin giggle bright and feminine, and could almost see the way his ears fluttered and a blush covered his face.  
“Okay, okay. I won’t interrupt.” he responded, chuckling brightly.

“So I get her into her pajamas, fine. Read her a bedtime story. I then go to tuck her into bed, and she looks me dead in the eye, and just says ‘No’. And it floored me. This little kid just ‘No’. So I ask ‘No what, Maria?’ and she just, plain as day, says ‘No sleep. More Story.’

“So I think, maybe Caelan reads more than one story? I really should have asked. So I tell her another story, it was a really good one, I know that, but I can’t remember which exact one. And I think that will be it, but I go to tuck her in again and she just says ‘No.’”

Caelan smiled, remembering that exact voice Maria spoke in. The voice that almost perfectly echoed her mother’s, telling everyone that heard it that she meant business and wouldn’t take any shit. He was her Dad, and it got him sometimes. If her batting her eyelashes didn’t work, that was.

“And there I am, telling story after story. And she never seems to even begin to tire. And I begin to think ‘There is no way Leliana puts up with this.-”

“Implying that you think Caelan would put up with it.” Lin interrupted with a laugh, and Caelan could just see the smug look on his face.

“Oh, yeah. He would let her get away with anything. But Leliana wouldn’t. So I think about going down to ask them, but then I’m like ‘Man they’re gonna laugh at me if they think I can’t even babysit one little girl’. So I just… keep going. Telling stories. And I swear to Midra, it’s dawn before she finally drops off. I think she was really fighting it, too, you could see her eyes starting to close but she was trying to stave it off. I’m sure it was just to punish me.” Micah finally finished, sighing heavily.

Caelan remembered that day. It was an equinox, and Micah had offered them a night off. He had found the two of them in the morning, both fast asleep on Maria’s bed. But he didn’t know that he had struggled that much getting her to sleep. It made sense, though, Maria was the opposite of him and almost never wanted to sleep. He never understood it, but he didn’t have to. He just had to get up whenever she did. It was something you just put up with, as a parent.

“She was at most four, there was no way she was specifically punishing you.” Lin responded, more confused than mocking.

“You never met her.” Micah bit back, but there was no malice in it. “She was so smart. Got it from her mother, of course. I couldn’t remember Leliana that young, but I’m sure she was the same.

Caelan did remember Leliana that young. And Micah was right, she was exactly the same. She beat Caelan at any battle of the wits any day of the week. He had been in love with her almost instantly. 

Before he could think about it any further, Micah launched into another story. And for the first time in a long time, Caelan found he was enjoying hearing the old stories. Enjoying them being spoken about, remembering them in happier times. 

It wasn’t long before tears were streaming down his cheeks. But they weren’t bitter. Some were sad, yes, but some were happy. They were healthy tears.

And Caelan sat, and listened, and cried.


	6. Researching Failure

Nighttime was… strange for Lin. Now that Micah and Caelan were sharing a bed he felt better about leaving Caelan at night, which meant he could get back to what he had been doing before Caelan arrived.

Research.

It toed the line between a job and a hobby. He enjoyed doing it, for a start. He craved learning, growing his knowledge. It never even mattered if he had a goal, when he was younger. It was just fun, anyway.

But this time? This time he had a goal. A goal he had had for a few decades at least. One that he had been chipping away at, exploring as many avenues as he could. It was a long journey, with many dead ends and complete turn arounds. And a journey that he still couldn’t really see the end of.

Despite it all, he knew this was where he thrived. He was, in all honesty, useless at almost everything else. He couldn’t cast magic. He didn’t have the strength or the dexterity to fight. He supposed that he could talk to people pretty well, get them to come around to his side, but he found that too often it was almost impossible when they already had their minds set on something else entirely.

But when he was on his own, with his books? That was truly his element.

Although today… today it was boring. He was pouring over old research, books he knew he had read hundreds of times before, searching for something he had missed. It had been his project for almost a year now, trying to find out where he went wrong. He was certain that he had followed everything to the letter. Not that there had been much precedent. If he had been honest, there had been no precedent at all. The entire thing had been him stitching together different ideas and trying to make something that worked.

It hadn’t.

The library was a mess. He would have to get it cleaned up before anyone woke up in the morning, but right now the whole floor was littered with books, scrolls, and his own handwritten notes. He was lying on the sofa, more papers strewn across his own stomach as he reviewed his notes.

Everything had been perfect. Everything had happened perfectly. There was zero reason for him to have failed.

But then why was he here, a failure at the one thing he had ever been good at, desperately trying to pull threads of information together into something that had some shred of sense. 

The first inkling he had that something was wrong was when his ears twitched. Elven ears were sensitive to a lot of things, and sometimes they detected things too quiet for him to hear. But as soon as that one ear twitched, just the once, he knew something was wrong.

He knew it was important for him to keep cool. Whatever it was probably didn’t know he had spotted them at all. If it even was something. He trusted his ears, but he knew he was over tired, on top of being generally on edge. Still he strained his ears, trying to pick some sort of a sound.

Could it be Micah or Caelan? Probably not Micah, he wasn’t that quiet. But Caelan? Maybe. But that led to the question of why he would be doing it? Maybe he was just looking for Lin, but that didn’t mean he would be sneaking around.

And surely his instincts wouldn’t pick up on him as a threat?

He should call Caelan. There wasn’t much that he could do on his own, that was for sure. But calling Caelan would do nothing but alert the person who was sneaking up on him. 

Although, the other side of the argument was what could he do on his own even if he did have the element of surprise. It was something he needed to…

He realised too late that he had, well, left it too late. 

There was a sharp tug to his hair, jerking his head back over the arm of the sofa. The grunt that came out of him was nothing but instinctual, and even before it had fully escaped his mouth he knew that it wasn’t loud enough. There was no way it would wake either Caelan nor Micah. He took a breath, fully intending to shout louder, but before he could there was a calloused hand over his mouth.

He grunted a few times, trying to get some noise out, but it wouldn’t come. 

He looked up at his attacker, but he didn’t learn much. They had a mask across the lower half of their face, and some sort of glass contraption across their eyes. The curious part of Lin wondered exactly what it was, even with his vision in the dark he couldn’t quite see through it enough to see their eyes.

A hood around their had stopped him from being able to see their hair, or their ears, so it was almost impossible for him to guess at their race. They looked humanoid, at least, and he could see small glimpses of caucasian skin showing through the black fabric that was trying to cover it.

Lin looked up with defiant eyes, staring up at them. He had been told many times not to panic in these situations. If he panicked then he wouldn’t be able to think rationally, and thinking rationally could be the difference between life and death right now. 

He had also been told to learn how to co-operate, and not be a dick. He was… worse at taking that advice.

The person above him had a fist full of his hair, which stopped him from moving his head too much. It annoyed him a lot more than it probably should, he had always seen his hair as being important, somehow sacred. He hadn’t cut it since he could remember, it seemed too blasphemous. And now to have this stranger touching it? 

He didn’t have much longer to contemplate it, as his attacker decided to switch tactics, twisting Lin’s hair around their hand as they walked around the sofa and crouched down to get in his face. Lin kept his face resolute as he stared back, setting his jaw and showing that he wasn’t going to panic. 

“Mr. Chasso. I have some questions for you.” 

It was a masculine voice, speaking in the common tongue which didn’t really help him discern who this could be. He certainly didn’t recognise the voice, and it was a local accent. This person could be literally anyone. 

Lin didn’t answer. He didn’t need to. This man wasn’t going to care if he spoke back or not, and he would much rather make this difficult for him.

It was a second later that he felt the cold metal of a blade against his throat, the edge biting into his skin. It wasn’t the first time he had felt it, and he knew that it wouldn’t be the last. It was the price you paid for the life he lived.

“I need you to tell me about your family. What really happened to them.”

Lin’s ears threatened to pin back, but he refused to let them. He refused to show fear.

“My family were murdered at the hands of a maniac nearly nine months ago. All of the information that I know about it has been made public. You’ll learn nothing from me that you couldn’t have learnt from reading a newspaper. I’m sorry to tell you, but you’ve wasted your time.”

If the man was mad at his response, he didn’t show it. It appeared he had been expecting some sort of resistance from Lin. Which was, actually, worrying. Usually people would expect Lin to break down as soon as he was under any sort of pressure. The fact that this guy wasn’t… led him to believe that he maybe knew more about Lin than he ever wanted to let on. 

“We both know that’s not true. I have it on good authority something else went down that night. I represent a group of people with… lets say a vested interest in finding out the truth.”

And that… that was something that concerned Lin no end. Sure, there were plenty of people who Lin had pissed off in his life, and plenty of people who really wanted to know what had happened the night his family died. But the fact that some of them seemed to have grouped together in order to collectively attack him? That… that was worrying. Everyone up to this point had tried to fight him as a one off, and that he could deal with. But they had never decided to organise themselves before.

He had to be careful. His normal routine of turning into a blubbling mess as soon as his family was mentioned may not work here.

“Someone came into the house. They dragged us all into the basement, and performed some sort of a ritual on us. Look around you, I have been researching trying to figure out just what they did. But I haven’t figured it out yet. If you have all these people working on taking me down, how about you set them on trying to figure it out instead?” 

He couldn’t see if his attacker reacted at all. That was a problem when someone covered their face, it removed any chance of Lin being able to work out what they were feeling. The hand tightened in his hair, though, and that told him everything he wanted to know.

“You can’t lie to me. I’m not like all the people that have come before. I know what you’re like, know that you’re lying through your teeth more often than not. You can’t fool us with your pathetic little show. We know you’re more dangerous than you ever let on.”

Lin paused, staring up at them through narrowed eyes. It was a second later he started to laugh, and it wasn’t even a little faked.

“I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to have a conversation with your sources. Look at me. I’m functionally useless. How would I get four powerful wizards down into the basement, tie them up, tattoo their skin, and then cast… gods know what spells on them? I can’t even cast spells! There was no way I could have done that.”

There was an annoyed huff, and Lin knew that he was getting under his attacker’s skin. Good. This way, hopefully, he would get sloppy. And if he did, then maybe he would be able to contact Caelan or Micah. 

“That’s another thing that’s been bugging us.” they finally said, and Lin could tell he was beginning to lose his cool. “You brother had been away for decades. No one had seen him around town on the days preceding the murder. And yet… there he was.”

Lin went to speak, but a sharp tug to his hair turned it into a groan of pain instead. “In addition to that, I have it on very good authority that his body is missing. So… how do you explain that?”

Lin paused for a moment, not really knowing what to say. He wanted to cry. Not even fake crying to make him look more pathetic. Real, genuine tears that threatened to spill from his eyes and fall down his cheeks. He would, he really would look pathetic.

But he didn’t know. Half of it, anyway. There wasn’t a reason for Ro to be there. He shouldn’t have been there. He should be the other side of the country with the army, doing whatever he did in times of peace. Working as a mercenary? Who was to know.

All he knew was he hadn’t seen him in two decades, and then the next time he saw him was the day that he died.

If only he had stayed out east. Then he would still be alive, and Lin wouldn’t be alone.

“What’s wrong, Mr Chasso?” his attacker teased, the dagger at his throat digging slightly deeper. “Cat got your tongue?”

Lin’s mind was blank. He didn’t know what to say. 

“He wasn’t a brother. He was a sibling. He didn’t… he didn’t like gendered words.” Lin finally said, eyes dropping away from contact and staring into space. He needed to pull himself together if he was going to get through this but… it was just too damn hard. This person seemed to have hit every single one of his buttons in one foul swoop. It was, most probably, a mistake. But that didn’t help the feeling that was currently balled up in his chest.

His attacker paused, as if they were thinking exactly how to deal with this new information. In the end it seemed like they decided against even acknowledging it. Lin didn’t know whether that was better or worse.

“That doesn’t answer my question. Why was he here. That should be an easy enough answer for you, shouldn’t it?” he mocked, hand tightening in Lin’s hair until each strand was pulling painfully at his scalp. He didn’t want to lose his hair like this, but now it was starting to get close to the point where it felt like it was about to be torn out.

“I don’t know.” Lin finally sobbed out, every word he said pushing the skin of his throat further into the dagger. “I’m sorry, I don’t know why he was here.”

“Seems I’ve hit a sore spot, huh?” his attacker responded, and Lin could hear in their voice that they were grinning. “You thought you were all high and mighty until I mention him. I think I’ve found your weakness, hm? I wonder what will happen if the word gets out about this? If people start knowing about the one name that will bring you to your knees.”

Lin set his jaw firm again. They had taken it too far. What had started as targeted attacks on his vulnerabilities had turned into far too much childish mocking for it to really hurt him.

He tried to ignore the lingering pain that was still there, push it down for now. Maybe later he would think of it again. If he even managed to survive.

“You make it sound like I have any idea why my sibling did anything.” Lin finally spat back, sadness turning to anger in the way it usually did. “You seem like you knew him so well, you should know he was an agent of chaos. He did whatever the fuck he wanted. I don’t know why he came back. No one does, now he’s gone. You’re barking up an impressively wrong tree.” 

The attacker must have known that they had pushed it too much. They took a longer pause before speaking now, obviously trying to come up with something to throw Lin off again.

But Lin was prepared now. He wasn’t going to let this happen again. His barriers had been well and truly erected now, and it would take an awful lot more to break them back down.

“You’re not off the hook yet.” his attacker finally growled. “I know that you know a lot more than you let on. We’re not stupid. We know you’ve been lying to us. That you’ve been lying to the world. You know more than you’ve let on.”

His hair was yanked forward suddenly, and Lin was forced to sit up. The point of the dagger broke his skin, and he felt blood start to trickle down his neck, but that wasn’t at the forefront of his brain right now.

He was being dragged to his feet, and it was awkward seeing as he was almost a foot taller than his attacker. He had to bend over at an obscure angle in order to keep his head low enough that the other man’s hand could maintain it’s grip in his hair. 

“If you’re not going to talk then I guess I am just going to have to force it out of you.” It came out as a growl this time, and Lin knew that he had really pissed off this person. That didn’t matter. He had put up with plenty of torture in the past, this wouldn’t be the first time he had been questioned by less than legal means.

He had held out before. He had survived. He would do it again, easily. 

The intruder was trying to drag him over to his desk, and Lin knew that right now the best thing for him to do would be to obey them. 

His brain flitted to what could happen when he got over there. A series of small cuts would make the most sense, or one big wound where the knife could be twisted and twisted inside. This person might even have magic that they hadn’t shown before. He needed to steel his mind down to have to deal with a lot of pain, either way. Maybe he had gone a little soft, it had been an awful long time since he had really felt pain. But he couldn’t think of that right now. He had to focus on staying strong until he could formulate a plan to get some kind of salvation.

And then it happened.

Lin had never been the most co-ordinated of people. He would go as far to say that he was one of the worst. And that was when he was standing upright, and walking normally. But in this position, twisted around and half bent over? Well. In that case the unthinkable was inevitable.

Lin tripped. And he tripped hard.

He wasn’t heavy by any sense of the word. He was too skinny, and didn’t have any muscle to give him the denseness he would need to have any weight. But what he was, was awkward, and when he went down he went down like a stack of bricks.

Right on top of his attacker.

He felt a sharp pain in his ribs, a dull pain but one that was accompanied by a large grunt from his attacker as the bulk of Lin’s weight fell right on his chest.The grunt was cut short as the intruder’s head hit the ground with a sickening crunch, and then the room fell silent.

Well. He never could have planned it to go that well.


	7. Nothing but Ghosts

It was only when Lin stood up that he realised exactly what had happened. The dagger stored in his jacket had pierced through the fabric, through the fabric of the intruder’s cloak and into their back. Lin couldn’t help but let out a small laugh. This dagger never failed to amaze him. 

Nearly a year after it’s owner had died, it was still protecting him.

He paused, trying to figure out just what he was going to do. First thing first, he knew he had to see if this person was still alive. That was the first port of call, anyway.

He bent down, groping around the intruder’s neck to try and feel for a pulse.There was a moment of quiet as he tried to get exactly the right place, before he finally let out a breath when he felt it under the skin. It wasn’t only there, but it was strong, too. There was no risk of them dying any time soon.

Lin took a moment to debate his next step. He could call for Caelan. That would be the most obvious choice. But then…

He had plans for this intruder. Plans that he wouldn’t want to go through with if Caelan, or especially Micah, was watching him. He also couldn’t risk them waking up and telling the two men exactly what he knew. Lin would still deny it, of course, but he didn’t want the risk anyway. Anything this person said could sow doubt in his boyfriends’ minds, and Lin didn’t want anything less than he wanted that.

Or… he could deal with this on his own. As long as the intruder stayed unconscious for long enough… then he could easily manage it. He had done it before plenty of times.

It was a struggle to drag the body to his desk, and even harder to haul it up into his chair. Lin had never really been strong, per se, but he was lucky that this intruder didn’t seem to be too strong either. He was sure if he had been any bigger he wouldn’t have a chance of lifting him even half way up.

As soon as he was up Lin adjusted him, opening up his desk drawer and looking inside. 

If anyone came across his desk drawer, they would come to one of two conclusions. Either he was in the habit of kidnapping people, or he was into something kinky. In reality, it was both. But no one needed to know that.

Working quickly, he pulled out everything he needed to take control of this situation. The handcuffs found their place around their wrists, the chain wrapping through the bars at the back of the chair so they couldn’t use their arms at all. Moments later he was on his knees, securely wrapping rope around both of their legs to secure them to the chair. He deliberated the ball gag. He wanted the intruder to talk, of course he did, but there was always the possibility of them screaming as soon as they woke up. He made his decision quickly, tearing off the intruder’s mask and shoving the gag into their mouth, before fastening it behind their head.

Now he was relatively safe he sat back, taking a few deep breaths. He had time, now. Time to think about what his next steps were. How did he want to go about this?

First things first, he needed to see just what he was working with. Who it was that had managed to get into the house to attack him. He pulled off their hood, their face mask, and goggles, and had his first real look at the man in front of him.

He had never seen him before, but that wasn’t necessarily surprising. Lin wasn’t the best at telling the ages of humans, but he looked young by any means. He couldn’t have been far out of his teens, if he even was at all. 

But maybe it was just because he looked young? Curly hair framed his face, dark freckles smattered across his nose. He definitely looked younger than Caelan, but then again he had thought Caelan was younger than he actually was. It wasn’t like he could ask anyone, either, so he decided to just let it go. However old he was, it wasn’t like he was going to get any older.

He headed to leave the room, stripping out of his jacket as he did. He would have to wash it soon, it was easier to get the blood out that way. Either the man didn’t wake up yet or even if he did, he would still be gagged and unable to make a noise. It would be fine to let him sit and stew for a while. There was no way he could get out of the bonds Lin had left him in.

The bathroom was his first stop, to get his suit in some water before the blood set in too quickly. He would send it to be laundered properly later, but for now this would do. He rolled up his sleeves in the mirror, knowing that he was going to get more blood all over him later. He could, possibly, strip off. But that didn’t look as threatening as the rolled up sleeves with a waistcoat look he was rocking right now. Intimidation was important above all else.

He reached up into his cupboard, pulling out a couple of healing potions. The man in the library wasn’t getting out alive, of course, but he would need to be awake and well enough to answer questions as soon as possible. He had to be completely finished by the time Micah and Caelan awoke, or else they might have some… uncomfortable questions for him.

There were another couple of moments where he could just sit back on his desk, debating the man in front of him. Where had he come from? How had he learnt so much about Lin that he was so confident he had kept quiet.

How did he know so much about Ro?

Everything could be answered. All he had to do was wake the man up, and put the fear of death into him. People could pretend to be brave all they wanted, but Lin often found if they had a knife at their throat then that bravery disappeared. He had watched bigger men than this one collapse at their knees as soon as their own mortality was waved in front of their face.

This man would crumble in seconds. He would scream, cry for his Mummy, tell Lin everything he wanted, and then he would die.

It was a routine Lin had gone through time and time again. 

Another deep breath, before he stood up and fisted a hand in the man’s hair, jerking his head back before pulling out the gag to leave him with an open mouth. That was all he needed to pick up one of his healing potions, pulling the cork out with his teeth before pouring it into his victim’s mouth. Lin’s hand wrapped around his neck, stroking down his throat to get him to swallow down the liquid. He made sure that the potion was swallowed, and the man wasn’t drowning or choking, before replacing the gag and sitting back.

Now all he needed was a couple of minutes for it to kick in, and then he would be free to interrogate the man however he wanted to. 

A few more minutes of sitting and wondering, before all of his questions should be answered.

“Should be” being the operative word.

The man came to with a gasp, eyes darting around to try and take in all of his surroundings. When they locked with Lin’s they filled with fear, and Lin would be lying if he said that didn’t send a thrill down his spine.

Let it never be said that Lin didn’t enjoy causing fear in his victims eyes. 

To his credit, he didn’t even attempt to scream. Lin could appreciate that, at least. The small amount of courage he was still trying to show. 

“Hello.” Lin said with a grin, sitting forward on the side of his desk to get closer to him. “This hasn’t really turned out as you planned, huh?”

And Lin really had to hand it to this guy. The look of defiance in his eyes reminded him of himself.

“Now, you need to keep silent. If you don’t, then I will slit your throat without hesitation.” he picked up his dagger, holding it casually in his hand to try and fake that he was at least a little confident with it. “If you listen to everything I say, then I will let you out of this house alive. It’s very simple. Do what I want, and you live. Put one toe out of line, and you die.”

Those eyes were still hard, but seemed to at least accept his current situation. Lin didn’t want to trust him, not really, but there was no way for him to find out just what was going on without releasing him from his gag.

Lin pressed the dagger against his throat as he stepped forward, giving him a physical warning as he opened the gag with the other hand, dropping it to the floor beside them with an audible clatter.

“What the fuck did you do to me.” The man immediately spat out, but at least it was quiet enough not to wake the sleeping occupants of the house. “You’re not supposed to have magic.”

Lin grinned wide, showing his canine teeth in a way that could stop even a hardened attacker in it’s tracks. It was predatory, and laced with something even darker.

“I’m not, am I? Maybe you need to consider that your sources may not be the most reliable.” he responded, teeth showing through his lips every time he spoke. “Because how else did I get you down so quickly?”

The man’s eyebrows furrowed, as if he was thinking hard about the question. Trying to remember exactly what had happened before he was knocked out. It obviously didn’t help, because moments later his face fell, and Lin knew he had won. It wasn’t the hardest battle he had ever come out the other side of, sure, but he much preferred it this way. A couple of words was all it took to break this guys mettle.

“... you managed to get magic?” he finally stammered out, and Lin grinned wide again. 

“I did. But… I promise I won’t turn it on you. All you need to do is answer a few little questions for me.” he pulled the dagger away a little, giving him just a small amount of space to talk. There was the barest hint of a nod. All of his confidence had seemed to drain away from him.

“First of all, what is your name. And don’t bother trying to lie to me. I will know. And I will not appreciate it.” Lin asked. He didn’t really care, he knew he wouldn’t have heard of him, but it would be useful to look him up later. If he was working with other people, like he had suggested he was, then it would be a useful lead.

“Gar.” the man sighed, looking down at the floor. “Gar Adrie.”

Lin nodded. He had never heard the name before, of course, but it was always useful not to let that information go.

“And what do you do, Master Adrie?” he asked. Lead them in with smaller questions, build up a rapport. That was the key to interrogating people.

“I… Nothing, really. I don’t work. I… I’m a thief. Make a decent living stealing from the markets.” he admitted, keeping his eyes away as if he was ashamed of admitting it.

“Ah, so you’re a thief trying to do an assassin’s job. Next question, and listen carefully because it’s the most important one. Why did you come here tonight?” Lin asked, leaning closer so their faces were mere inches apart.

“For information.” Gar responded, and Lin saw his eyes glaze over. He was starting to reign back his answers. He was protecting someone.

“And why would a thief need information?” Lin asked, sitting back on the desk. “If you wanted to steal stuff from me, you could have easily. You can see that now. So why attack me?”

There was a pause as Gar thought. Lin was confident that the next sentence out of his mouth would be a lie.

“Because I was friends with your little brother. I wanted to know more about how he died.” he finally admitted, looking down as if he was hurt. It was a good act. But he had made one mistake.

“Bullshit.” Lin spat, and Gar jumped a little. “Arata would never have associated with a human. A nice try, if he was less of an asshole I might have believed you. But he was.”

Gar gritted his teeth, obviously mad at the error he had made. 

“So, I highly suggest that you have a severe think, and tell me the truth.” Lin grinned, lazily bouncing the dagger on his knee. “Why did you come here?”

Gar’s jaw set itself, and Lin knew that he was losing him. This was a person protecting someone, and who was willing to die to protect them. He had made his decision now, and that meant that Lin wasn’t going to learn any more from him.

“Who sent you here, Gar?” he asked, trying to soften his voice even just a little. He had one last shot to get him to talk.

And it didn’t work. He had lost his one chance of getting all of the information he needed. And now he had nothing left.  
“Well, Gar. I feel it’s time that our conversation ends, don’t you?” Lin sighed, finally standing up from his desk and stretching up to his full height. “It’s been really fun. And I hope that you’re friends appreciate you dying for them this way. If they even notice you’re gone.”

He took a few steps around him, making sure he was stood behind him. Gar’s hands were turning white as he clenched the sides of the chair, the fear in his eyes increasing with every step that Lin took. It was a shame Lin wouldn’t be able to see them as he died.

Lin leant down, preparing the dagger in his hand and pressing it to Gar’s throat. From behind him he wouldn’t have to worry about the spray of blood from his neck.

His lips found his ear, and he dropped his voice to a whisper. “Tell Arata I said hi.”

And he slit his throat.

The next few hours before morning was a rush. If Lin had thought that getting the body up onto the chair was bad enough, dragging him all the way along to his lab was even harder. His decision to change all the carpet in the mansion to hardwood had been a good one, in hindsight, because no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t help but leave a trail of blood the entire way.

It took another annoyingly long length of time to haul him up onto one of his lab tables. He would be fine there, for now. The more pressing matter was making sure Caelan and Micah never discovered what had happened overnight.

His clothes were put into wash immediately, soaking them in the bath to loosen the blood as quickly as possible. They would go to be cleaned properly, of course, but he had always wanted to make it easier on the people who worked in the laundry. 

The rest of the night was spent mopping blood off the floor, on his hands and knees. It was a pain, sure, but it wasn’t like it was something he hadn’t had to do before. The fear of either of the men in his bed waking up and coming to see him forced him to get it done a lot quicker than he ever had in the past. Not that he ever wanted to do this again.

After dawn he was stood in the kitchen, the house looking exactly like it had when Caelan and Micah went to bed. He was halfway through cooking breakfast, a plate full of french toast and all of the trimmings for them to all pick at and eat. 

It had been hard work, but in the end it was worth it. No one would know a murder took place here last night.

No one but him and the dead.


	8. Keeping Our Heads Above Water

Things had almost settled into a routine, and Caelan didn’t really know what he felt about it. Before, he had been dead set against it, but now? Well, he was managing to read a lot more than he had in the past, which was something that he would never turn down.

Lin had been reading his own book when Caelan walked in, resting against the arm of the sofa and head buried in a novel in some language that Caelan was sure he hadn’t seen before. He had seen Lin reading before, and it felt like he would be distracted all the way through an explosion. It worried Caelan a little, seeing as he was still technically supposed to be his bodyguard. Lin went from noticing every little thing, to putting his head in a book and noticing nothing at all.

Even when Caelan moved over to the bookshelf, running his fingers across the spines to find a book in a language he could read. He had no idea what kind of organisational system Lin used, and he didn’t want to maybe offend him by asking. As far as Caelan could see it was entirely random, but he was sure there was some rhyme or reason to it. Someone like Lin wouldn’t just have them thrown on willy nilly, would he?

He finally found a book that he hadn’t read before, and that looked fairly interesting. Some kind of adventure book, detailing a long journey to defeat a big bad guy who threatened to end the world. Cliche, sure, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t entertaining to read. 

Caelan felt sure that when he went to sit next to Lin, shuffling closer to him and resting up against him, that he would notice that something had changed and realise someone had come to join him. But he didn’t, he just started to purr quietly in his chest and ears started to flutter. Some part of Lin obviously knew that Caelan was there, but not the part that was actively paying attention.

But even if Lin wasn’t paying active attention to him, this was still nice. It fulfilled a part of Caelan that had been rejected for too long. A part that enjoyed being in a comfortable proximity with someone, not even talking or doing anything together, just being close.

Something he had noticed about Lin was that he was an incredibly fast reader. It seemed that he had a different book each day, despite how thick each book was. To start with Caelan suspected that he wasn’t actually reading them, just skimming them, except he knew them in such detail when they discussed them later on that it didn’t seem to make any sense. Although, he did suppose that he had almost a century of practice reading. Did he just get faster and faster as the years went on?

He wasn’t sure when Lin really noticed, or whether he even consciously noticed at all. But he shuffled up next to him, leaning into him with a slightly louder purr. It was nice, in a way, relaxing. A nice change of pace to the last couple of years of never sitting down for more than a few moments at a time, always looking over your back.

And then the peace was shattered, like it always was.

Micah breezed into the room like he belonged there, looking over at them with a raised eyebrow and a hand on his hip. He was almost naked, wearing nothing but a small pair of shorts, and his tail swished behind him to show his excitement. 

Micah was, quite possibly, the easiest person to read that Caelan had ever met. It was that tail, giving away everything he was thinking at all times.

“Look at the two of you nerds.” he said out loud, finally getting Lin to look up. The smile that spread across his face almost lit up the room. “Sat in here reading. Look out the window! It’s a beautiful day! You should go outside!”

Caelan made a face, wrinkling his nose and looking back down at his book. It didn’t even need to be discussed. He had never in his life liked going out in the sun. He was a moon elf, for Gods’ sake. His skin was delicate, and would burn at the toss of a hat. No tanning, no freckles, just instant burn.

“I’m really close to finishing this book, though…” Lin added, a slight whine in his voice as his eyes switched from the book up to Micah and back. Micah pouted, cheeks puffing out as he pressed his lips together. It was a face he had been making since he was a toddler, and Caelan found it had only got more effective the older he got. 

“But I want to go out sunbathing…” Micah whined, taking a few steps over to Lin and running a hand over his hair and down to his shoulder. “But I don’t want to go out all on my own. You’ll come with me, won’t you?” he asked, eyes wide and pleading.

Lin, in all fairness, never stood a chance.

“I… guess I could always come and read outside…” he sighed, looking back at Caelan as one ear ticked down in curiosity. “Did you want to come too?”

Caelan could barely even shake his head before Micah had turned the brunt of his attack onto him.

“Caelan Harlaw, you need to see the sun.” he said matter of factly. He wasn’t as gentle as he was with Lin, either, grabbing Caelans hands and trying to tug him to stand. “That’s the big yellow circle in the sky, if you’ve forgotten what it looks like. It’s the…”

“I know what the sun is” Caelan sighed, putting more weight than he wanted to admit into staying sat on the sofa. “You know I burn like a lobster. I’m not going to come with you.”

“You can stay under the umbrellas.” Micah pouted, giving another tug to Caelan’s wrists. “Stay in the shade, no sun even needs to touch your skin.” 

Caelan sighed, rolling his eyes before putting his book down to prepare to stand up.

“We can even go swimming, if you want.” Lin added, looking over at the two of them with a smile. And that was what turned Caelan against the idea.

He had never, actually, learnt how to swim. He had never really seen a reason to. Dry land was more than enough adventure for him, and even though the rest of his family could swim he had never really bothered.

“You two go swim, I can wait in here.” Caelan said, and Micah made one of the most offended noises he had ever heard. 

“You promised, you lazy fuck.” he whined, putting more strength into each time he tugged on his arms. “You lazy, porcelain skinned fuck, come on.” 

Caelan couldn’t help but laugh, trying to counteract Micah pulling him but figuring out soon enough that he had no chance. He eventually gave up, standing up to stand over Micah and wrap his arms around his waist, trapping the tiefling’s hands between them.

“I never promised anything.” He grinned, leaning down to pull Micah into a kiss. “I never actually said I would come. All I did was put my book down.”

Micah pouted into the kiss, frowning up at him when he finally pulled away. “Come ooon. You can creep on us swimming naked. Bring your book, sit under the umbrella, and I will try to distract you.”

It was seconds later that he felt Lin stand behind him, pressing up against him to sandwich them between the two of them. 

“You can just sit outside and keep us company. It will be nice to have you there” he started, before he paused and looked down at Micah. “Wait… did you say swim naked?”

Micah scoffed, trying to wriggle out of Caelan’s grasp but not quite managing it. “Of course swim naked. Do you think I have swimming shorts with me? Do you think I bought them with me?”

Caelan could feel Lin’s blush even from behind him heating up his skin. And, okay, maybe he could put up with going outside for a bit if it meant watching the two of them swim around completely naked.

Lin must have had some sort of look on his face, because Micah rested his chin on Caelan’s collarbone to look up at him with a pout.

“Come on. It’s in your back garden, no one is gonna see you. Well, except us, but you don’t mind that, do you? You don’t seem to mind that, anyway.” Micah whined, and Caelan knew without even looking that he was batting his eyelashes.

There was a second of hesitation, and Caelan was about to tell Lin that he really didn’t have to, if he didn’t want to, and Lin began to laugh quietly.

“Yeah, alright. It’s not like it’s something you guys haven’t seen before, right?” he whispered, and Caelan was worried again for a second before Lin chuckled and pressed a quick kiss to his temple before pulling away.

“You’re gonna come with us, right Caelan?” Micah asked, and there it was. That’s where he turned the full power of those puppy eyes onto Caelan. 

Caelan had always thought he was almost powerless to being manipulated in such a way, but he obviously didn’t intend on Micah being the one trying to manipulate him.

“Yeah… sure. I’ll come and read outside.” Caelan sighed, reaching down to grab his book to bring with him.

But Micah still wasn’t finished. He took advantage of Caelan stepping back to run a finger down his chest and over his stomach, stopping just above the waistband of his trousers.

“I was thinking…” he started, biting his lower lip and Caelan raised an eyebrow as he waited for him to just get on with it. But this was Micah, and Micah really wasn’t a fan of just getting to the point when there was an option to be extra about it. “Surely it’s not fair if the two of us are naked and you’re all covered up…”

Caelan rolled his eyes, turning to head out of the room before Micah could say anything else.It didn’t help that he was convinced that Micah was most definitely watching him leave.

The sun had started to really blare down in the last week or so. Hyrendell was always hot, but now they were getting into the start of summer it was almost unbearable in the middle of the day. For most people, anyway. 

Especially for Caelan. Even though neither of his boyfriends really appeared to mind. 

He was about to sit down on one of the deck chairs, underneath one of the large umbrellas, when Lin stopped him with one hand. 

“You’ll get too warm over here.” he smiled, before starting to pull the deck chair over towards the pool. It wasn’t long before Micah noticed, instantly going over to his side to help him out. “If it’s over here.” Lin continued,and Caelan was sure that he wasn’t actually doing anything with the deck chair at this point. “Then you can stick your feet into the water, and it should help you keep cool.” he smiled.

Caelan smiled back, moving over to kiss him as soon as they were done moving the deckchair. “Thank you, baby. It will definitely help.”

He took a seat, settling himself down underneath the umbrella with a sigh. He pulled his shoes and socks off, taking a moment to roll his trousers up to his knees so he could rest his feet in the water.

Micah was naked in less than a second, and it was impressive even for Caelan to watch. It wasn’t that much longer before he jumped into the pool, pulling his knees up to his chest and bombing in with a splash.

Lin took much longer. It wasn’t like he was specifically trying to strip tease, he just seemed a lot more nervous than Micah, and certainly had more clothes that he needed to take off before he was completely naked.

But after a few minutes of undressing everything was folded up neatly on one of the other deck chairs, and he was about to get into the pool before he paused. One hand came up to touch his necklace, staring at the pool as he obviously tried to wonder whether he should risk putting it in the pool or not.

After a moment of deliberation he took it up over his head, holding it like it was the most precious thing in the world for a second. But still, he smiled as he passed it over to Caelan for the time being.

“Could you look after it, for a moment? I… I don’t like it being submerged for too long.” he said quietly, almost nervously.

Caelan nodded, returning an encouraging smile as he took it and rested it carefully on the deck chair behind him. He could have put it on instead but… that seemed wrong, somehow. It wasn’t his to wear.

Lin’s entrance into the water was much, much more graceful than Micah’s was. Although, now that he thought about it, it wasn’t too difficult. The elf sat himself down on the side of the pool, gently pushing himself off the tiles to glide into the water.

Micah had been floating around on his back, lazily kicking his legs once every so often to direct himself away from the sides. But he noticed Lin entering the water, and turned on his front to swim over to him.

Whereas Caelan had avoided swimming all of his life, Micah had been attracted to it. His mother had a stream at the bottom of their garden, and although it wasn’t enough to swim in, he still spent many, many hours sat down there as a child. It seemed like every time he visited Caelan and his parents in the larger town, he begged to be taken to the public swimming baths. It was something he himself would never understand, but Micah almost seemed to be more at home in the water than he was on dry land.

And now he had grown up, it was no different. The water in this pool was so clear Caelan could see his tail cutting through the water, swirling it up and creating a small current underneath.

Lin seemed to be enjoying it, too, which was. Surprising. Swimming was most definitely exercise-adjacent, and up until this point Lin had appeared staunchly against any type of exercise. But now he was in the water, treading water to keep himself afloat with more competence than Lin had ever shown in the past with any physical task. 

Caelan watched as he ducked his head under the water, holding his breath as his hair got swallowed up and started to float in the water like smoke through the air. It was almost enchanting, like watching a mermaid in the sea. Micah followed him down, reaching his hands out to take hold of Lin’s hips and pull him in for a kiss. Caelan could do nothing but smile, enjoying the view as he realised that he probably wasn’t going to be getting any reading done while they were out here.

When they finally broke the service the two of them kissed again, before Lin kicked his way over to the side. He leant his forearms on the side, smiling up at him while Micah kicked round the pool lazily.

“Your hair looks so pretty in the water.” Caelan smiled, leaning down to take his hand before regretting it when remembering that it was wet. 

“Thank you.” Lin grinned back, keeping hold of his hand even as he tried to pull it away. “My Mum used to joke we were descended from selkies. I don’t think that’s entirely true though” he blushed, ears ticking down for a moment in embarrassment.

“Well, I would believe it.” Caelan smirked back, squeezing his hand back as he finally gave up trying to get away. “It looks like a cloud under there. It’s pretty.”

Lin blushed dark again, right up to the tips of his ears and it only made Caelan smirk more.

“I thought you were meant to be swimming, babe. Not lazing around over here with me.” Caelan finally joked, poking at Lin’s waist with his foot. “Micah is gonna get all annoyed again that no one is swimming with him.”

Lin pouted for a second, pulling Caelan’s hand closer to him to kiss the back of his knuckles before sighing and kicking away to join Micah in the middle of the pool.

Caelan relaxed back, leaning on his elbows to keep himself upright enough to watch as Lin joined Micah, adjusting himself to lie on his back next to him and holding his hand tightly. It was sweet, far too adorable for him to put into words. 

A small part of Caelan wished he could be over there with them. There was no reason that he shouldn’t learn how to swim, but it felt like a lot of effort for something that he would rarely, if ever, use. And plus he was still mostly a part of it, if he was looking at it from the outside. 

But a larger part of Caelan really didn’t mind that. He knew he was still a large part of this relationship, and the slight bit of distance dampened the anxiety that was beginning to set into his bones whenever he woke up and one or other of them weren’t there with him. 

This was supposed to be fun, nothing more. He wasn’t looking for an in depth relationship, not really, just to have fun for a while. In a few more months Lin would get bored of him, and Micah definitely would. And at that point he would be able to move on, journey to another part of the country to get away.

At least, that was what he told himself. Even though a small voice at the back of his head told him how utterly stupid he was to be lying.


	9. Gifts with Meaning

Micah was sure that he had left it on the kitchen table downstairs. And he wasn’t a smart man, he knew that, but it was also one of only two things he owned that he consistently kept track of. 

The other was a small gold bracelet, detailed with leaves and flowers so small Micah hadn’t even noticed the small lines of detail until he was curious enough to look at it under a magnifying glass a couple of years after he received it. You would think something so small would be much easier to lose, but he never took it off so he never had that problem.

His pocket watch, however.

That had to come out of his pockets to clean his clothes. That meant that it would be put somewhere, somewhere that Micah always remembered, always kept an eye on. When he was out travelling it usually never left his hand while it was being cleaned, but he had assumed that it would be safe in Lin’s house, with no one but Lin and Caelan around. But it turned out that was a stupid idea. He should have learnt not to assume things.

It had only been about four hours, but that was enough for it to go anywhere. What if someone came into the house, stolen it, and run off. They could be anywhere by now. Maybe he could pay a diviner to try and find it again? It would be costly, but it would be worth it.

His mind was running away with him as he pulled all of the drawers out of their housing, sorting through them with his hands and ignoring the small cuts and nicks that the knives gave him. Maybe it had fallen into one of them accidentally.

Stupid. That was stupid. That couldn’t have happened.

Maybe Lin had put it somewhere safe? Yes. That would be it. Lin had found it, and put it somewhere.

He didn’t know where exactly the two men were, except that they were most probably in the library. That’s where they seemed to hang out the most of the time when Micah wasn’t there. If they were hanging out together, anyway.

But when he ran in the library was empty, although there were small hints that they had been in there recently. Books were hastily abandoned on the coffee table, cushions not quite in place.

Micah rushed in, anyway, opening Lin’s desk drawers and groaning out loud when they were only full of useless things like quill and ink. He got stuck at a drawer in the middle of the desk, tugging at it two or three times until he realised it was locked. A spell fizzled at his fingers for a second. No. Stupid. Stupid.

He would have to ask. The quick way they had left the library could only mean one thing.

He took the stairs three at a time, bounding up them at a speed he rarely bothered releasing. But this was important. He couldn’t waste time.

The bedroom door slammed into the wall with a bang, and it took Micah a moment to figure out what he was seeing. 

Lin was on top of Caelan, just managing to roll his hips once before the bang of the door interrupted him. He was already blushed a dark red, but Micah watched as his ears went from pointed upwards to pointed back in utter fear.

“Do you fucking mind?” Caelan spat out, but Micah was already in the room, moving across to the small desk Lin had started keeping in the room.

“No, no, don’t mind me. I’m just looking for my watch. Have you seen it?” Micah asked, rustling through the desk and huffing as he found nothing but more stationery than one man ever really needed to know. 

“Scuse?” Caelan asked, sounding even more offended, grunting when Lin rolled off him and grabbed the blanket to cover himself.

Micah still ignored him, opening the next drawer, hands already starting to go through before Lin spoke up for the first time since he had been interrupted by a tornado in the shape of a small tiefling.

“This watch?”

Micah swirled around, looking over at him. He was sat on the edge of the bed, the drawer of his bedside table wide open as he held a small circular object carefully in his hands.

Micah’s watch.

He was over there in less than a second, picking it up and turning it over in his hands. But the outside wouldn’t tell him if it was his. The only thing that would was clicking the small button on the top, opening it up and letting him see the inside.

And there it was, a small painting of him and his mother staring back at him. The small inscription around it with his name in a loopy cursive.

“I’m sorry, I…” Lin said with his ears dropped down as low as Micah had ever seen them. “I thought it was Caelan’s. I saw it on the side in the kitchen and was worried about it being knocked off so I put it somewhere safe.”

“Why didn’t you open it?” Micah asked, feeling like he was breathing for the first time since he noticed the watch was gone.

“Because… Because that would be… I didn’t even know you had one.” Lin responded, ears still low to his ears. “It’s identical to Caelans.”

And it was, on the outside at least. Beautiful shining yellow gold complemented with inlaid rubies, enchanted to flicker like flames even after all this time. It was beautiful, and Micah could remember times as a child that the flames almost hypnotised him. There was no way to differentiate it from Caelan’s on the outside.

But Micah knew that on the inside of his would be an old portrait of Leliana and Maria.

He also knew that Caelan was even more fiercely protective of his watch than Micah was. There would have been no chance of it being left somewhere unattended.

“Did you get them from the same place?” Lin asked, as Micah flopped down on the bed next to them. Caelan scoffed, obviously realising that the two of them weren’t getting back to their previous activity, and collapsed on his back with his arm thrown across his eyes.

“The same person.” Micah grinned, not caring one bit about the waves of hatred coming off of Caelan right now. “When we were born. It was a present from Hiroki.”

Lin made a noise next to him, a sharp intake of breath. Micah looked up with curious eyes, and the elf just smiled back down at him.

“Sorry, it’s just… Whoever Hiroki was, they must have loved you a lot.” he responded, smiling a smile that reached his ears. “These must have cost… wow. So much.”

“He was the child of a wealthy merchant in the north east, close to the Belleter Forest. He served in the same unit as our parents during the war, and this was his present when we were born. That’s why they’re the same.” Micah grinned, ears twitching.

“You said was.” Lin said quietly, shuffling a little closer. “What happened to him?”

Micah felt his own ears drop, and his tail still beside him where it had been swishing happily just moments before.

“He, uh. He died. We don’t know how. He missed Caelan’s birthday.”

“Which wasn’t surprising.” Caelan added in, and Micah turned around to shoot him a look. 

“It was. He loved you. Just because you were mad at him doesn’t mean he didn’t love you. But then he missed my birthday. Which hurt, but you know, maybe his card was lost in the post?” Micah said, ears dropping lower as Lin reached around his waist. “But then… then he missed Mama’s birthday. And he never missed Mama’s birthday.”

Tears welled up in his eyes, and he quickly swiped at them with his sleeve. He wasn’t going to cry over this. Not again.

“And so… and so Caelan’s Mum tried to contact him. And nothing came back. So she tried again, and again, and nothing happened. There’s only one reason she can’t contact people. If they’re dead.” Micah almost choked on his words, and Lin’s arm clenched tighter around him. He couldn’t even begin to think of pulling away. The soft pressure of his embrace helped melt away just a little of his sadness.

“Dad contacted the army.” Caelan sighed, and Micah was pleased he’d taken over. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep sobs out of his words. “He was higher up than Karsi or Hiroki were. They told him Hiroki had up and left with no warning, two months before. Said he was going home. But guess what. We looked around the entire north east, and no one by the name of ‘Hiroki Elenwe’ ever existed. There never was a wealthy merchant family called Elenwe. He had lied to us.”

“He must have had a reason.” Micah cried out, and Lin’s arm tightened around him again, pulling him in tightly. “You know he must have had a reason. He always had a reason.”

Lin shushed him, pulling him into his chest. Caelan didn’t say anything else, and Micah was thankful for it. Sure, he hadn’t been as close to Hiroki as Micah was, and they had butted heads more times than one, but that didn’t mean he had to be a dick about it.

“I miss him too.” Caelan finally said from behind him. “He was an arsehole. And full of himself. And thought he was the Gods’ gift to the planet. But… I miss him too. He didn’t deserve to die so young.”

Micah could feel his emotions hit him like a freight train, and he couldn’t help the wail that ripped from his lungs. He felt Lin pull him down, pressing his head into his neck and pulling a blanket up and over him. Caelan huffed again, before turning to lie against Micah’s back. An arm snaked around his waist, and leant to kiss his shoulder.

He would rather he didn’t have to be reminded of it. He would rather he didn’t break down in front of his two boyfriends like a toddler.

But, all things considered, this was the best place he could be.

Micah never woke up first, but he never woke up last either. It sounded impressive, said like that, but it really depended on Caelan sleeping far too much, and Lin… well. He wasn’t sure that Lin ever actually slept at all.

It led to many early mornings whispering between each other in bed, trying not to wake Caelan up too early. Because if they woke Caelan up too early, there would be hell to pay.

“Do we have any plans today?” he asked Lin lazily, eyes closed and enjoying the elf’s fingers moving gently through his hair. 

“Mmhm, I had a little idea.” Lin responded, voice soft and lilting. “But not if the two of you had any other plans. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes, anyway.”

Micah opened his eyes, grinning up at him with barely constrained excitement. “And what is this idea? Is it me and Caelan? Or just me? Do we get to dress up?”

Lin chuckled, leaning down to shut Micah up with a kiss. “You’ll just have to be patient and see. Can you do that? Are you at all capable of patience?”

Micah pulled a face, even into the kiss, eyebrows knitting together as he pouted. His tail tapped against Caelan’ shin in annoyance, and unconscious rhythm.

“I can be patient!” he whined, slightly louder than he intended to be. “I waited for years for Caelan to crawl out of his own ass and date me. I never even complained once.”

“Somehow I highly doubt you never complained” Lin giggled, nudging at Micah’s cheek when he turned away from him with a huff. “Maybe you never complained to him, but you must have complained to someone.”

“He complained to his Mum.” Caelan mumbled sleepily, turning over to look at them with tired eyes. Obviously the two of them had gotten loud enough to wake him up.

“I did not!” Micah protested, turning away from Lin to poke at Caelan’s side. “I never complained to my Mum. Not about that anyway.”

Caelan scoffed, resting one hand around Micah’s waist and pulling him close. “You absolutely did. You complain to her about everything.”

“You make me sound like a whiny little baby.” Micah replied, and it pained him that it came out as such a whine. “I don’t just complain to my Mama, I tell her happy things too!”

“Does she know about us?” Lin suddenly asked from behind him, with a hint of panic that even Micah could pick up. He frowned, turning back over in the bed and looking at him through his eyelashes. This was the problem with always being in the middle, it meant that you had to shuffle around as to not be impolite all the time.

“If you’re asking if I told her I got a couple smoking hot boyfriends, yeah.” Micah teased, before pausing when Lin’s face screwed up slightly. “Babe, she’s not… she knows I’m into guys, she’s not bothered with me having boyfriends…”

“No, no, it’s not that.” Lin interrupted quickly, resting a hand on Micah’s waist next to Caelan’s. “I just… it’s strange. Knowing she knows about me. Aren’t mother’s meant to hate the people who date their kids?”

Micah laughed, shaking his head and leaning up for a kiss. “You’ve not met my Mama. She won’t hate you. She doesn’t hate anyone.”

Caelan made a small noise from behind him, and Micah kicked back to shut him up. Lin’s face wasn’t looking any less worried, and he puffed up his cheeks as he tried to figure out a way to distract him from the panic that was obviously rising up in his chest.

“Why don’t you tell us about the plan that you had for today?” he asked, running his hand up and down Lin’s waist.

Lin took a breath, smiling at him like nothing had ever happened. Micah should be concerned just how easily he could hide his emotions, but he couldn’t bring himself to start thinking about that right now.

“Well… I wanted to show the two of you something. I know that Caelan uses blades, and Micah, I…” he trailed off, but Micah smiled as he provided the words he needed.

“I have been known to use daggers.” he added with a wide grin. 

“Well… we should get dressed. And I’ll show you something.”

In the end they had breakfast before Lin finally got around to showing them what he was meaning to. It still achieved the same basic aim, anyway, of distracting Lin from his anxiety.

Not that it had worked for very long. Because now they were stood next to one of the locked rooms, Lin fumbling with the key he had pulled from a ring in the kitchen.

The door didn’t look any different from the rest along the hall, but Micah knew that it had been locked at least since he got there. Not that he was trying to invade Lin’s privacy, he just… he got bored easily. And when he was bored he got curious.

As soon as the door opened he got hit with the smell of blade oil, and smoke, and a sharp metallic tang of iron. Something tugged at the back of his head, something familiar, something sad, but he refused to acknowledge it. Not today.

The room was large, but mostly empty. It seemed to be lit magically from above, a low level passive charm that seemed to still be holding out even as it wasn’t being kept up. The floors were a pale wood, reflecting the light back and making the whole room look bright and airy despite the fact there seemed to be no windows in there.

Instead every inch of the walls were covered in blades. Ranging from daggers to greatswords, a few small axes and two large glaives crossed over another on the opposite wall. Each and every weapon was spotless, gleaming in the light and reflecting Micah’s face back at him as soon as they hit the correct angle. And none of them were… plain. All different styles and designs, inlaid with gold and gems.

There was more money in this room that Micah would ever earn in his life time. Fuck, some of these blades must have cost more than Micah would earn in his life.

"My... My sibling. My older one.” Lin started, standing aside to let him and Caelan in. “Collected blades. And I've never sold them, because it felt dirty, you know. But... I know he would have wanted them to be appreciated, and it feels like you two would appreciate them much more than I currently do."

Micah glanced over to Caelan briefly, meeting his eyes before they both looked back at Lin.

"Are you sure?" Caelan asked gently, "I know how hard it is... letting go of things like this."

Micah gave Caelan's arm a brief squeeze, putting his other hand on Lin's. "If you're sure this is what you want. And if you ever change your mind, you just say the word and we'll give them right back."

Lin shook his head, closing the door and leaning on the back of it. Micah could see why, there wasn’t a spare inch of wall for him to lean on instead. "I know... but. I definitely don't appreciate them as much as I should. I feel he would like them to be loved, rather than just sitting around here gathering dust, you know?"  
The two of them nodded, Micah stepping into the room and looking around slowly. Caelan lingered by the door for a few moments, taking Lin's hand and giving it a brief squeeze. "Tell us which of these not to touch," he added, looking back at him, "I know there must be some you don't want to give up, and we don't want to disturb them."

"The important ones were buried with him. Everything here is free game." Lin smiled sadly, and Micah watched as his ears ticked down. He could understand why.

"Micah, you want first pick?" Caelan offered, leaning against the door beside Lin. He leaned their arms together slightly, but didn't look at him. Micah could read him well enough to see what he was doing. Trying to be there without calling attention to it.

"Sure," Micah agreed, taking in Caelan and Lin's postures. He wasn't the most observant, he could admit that, but this was clear enough. Neither of them wanted to leave Lin alone exactly, and each taking a turn like this would each give them a chance to stay with him.

Micah wasn't as much of a blade person as Caelan. He was decent enough with the stand fare, but bows were where he was most comfortable. With that in mind, he tried to focus more on looking at the short swords, wanting to give Caelan more of a selection of the daggers and rapiers he knew the half elf preferred.

"I thought your sibling was a wizard? Did he use these, or collect them?" Micah asked as he looked over a rack.

"A little of both" Lin sighed, leaning into Caelan's touch. "He always carried a dagger on him, in case he went somewhere with an anti-magic field. But the rest? They were just... aesthetically pleasing. Like some people collect books, or art, he collected blades."

"It's a beautiful collection. A lot of these look like they cost more than I get paid in a year, are you sure?" Micah asked again as he picked up a shortsword and looked back at Lin, "I think this is a literal ruby on here. I'm sure you know that, you're smart and you've got a lot of fancy stuff, but I don't think any of the gems in this room are fake."

"They're not fake" Lin smiled, moving his hand to interlace his fingers with Caelan's. "And... I'm sure. If you're uncomfortable with it as a present, think of it as a loan. I would rather you get some use out of them, and they stay close to me, than I sell them and never see them again. Does that help?" he asked with a smile, ears only dropping a little.

"I could keep working for you?" Micah offered, setting the sword back. As much as he liked a pretty gilded sword with a ruby the size of his eye, he knew it would just make him a more likely target for thieves and muggers. "Anymore jobs you need doing? Write you some music? Put on some shows for your friends?"

Caelan couldn't help but give a quiet laugh, brushing his thumb over Lin's hand. "Pick one, Micah. It's a gift," he insisted, and Micah could tell that it was for Lin's sake.

"Like Caelan said, it's a gift." Lin smiled, squeezing Caelan's hand in thanks. "You can keep that first one you picked up just for fancy occasions, if you want. It suits your tone really well. And... I'll never say no to you singing for me. But I would rather you did that because you wanted to, not because you felt like you owed it to me."

"It's not really owing it, as much as having a really easy, fun way to give you something back," Micah replied, picking up an elvish short sword with a swirling gold and red leather grip. The blade had a beautiful amount of detail to it, and the matching sheath, while a little ostentatious, didn't scream "rob me!" like the other quite had.

"What about this one?" he asked, bringing it over to show Lin.

Lin held up his hand to stop Micah handing it to him with a laugh. "Ah, I really can't be trusted with blades. But I think that suits you just perfectly. Do you like it?"

Micah nodded, looking down at it thoughtfully and turning it over and over in his hands. "Yeah. It's really pretty, without being incredibly flashy, you know?" he said thoughtfully, looking over the detailing on the blade, "But this. This engraving? This is some masterwork stuff right here. I like this one, if that's okay with you and Caelan."

Caelan nodded a bit, finally letting go of Lin's hand. "Red and gold were never really my colors. It suits you," he said, nodding slightly to him when Micah leaned up against Lin as he stepped further into the room.

"I remember that engraving" Lin smiled, taking Micah's hand naturally and squeezing it tightly. "He got it done in the capital. This little stall in the middle of the market. They were a two man team, one made the blade and the other decorated them. It was a bespoke piece, too, Ro designed it."

Micah looked down at the blade again, resting the sheath on the ground. "It's beautiful. Thank you," he said sincerely, "Your sibling had great taste. I do too, if I do say so myself, just not quite that much money. It's hard finding pretty weapons that are good weapons, you know?"

Lin smiled, looking between Micah and Caelan. "I think you'll find that one's a good weapon as well. It won't let you down, I promise."

Micah noted Caelan making a beeline for the daggers, and he was glad he'd avoided those. He wanted Caelan to pick out a good one, or a good pair. 

"Do you remember where all of these came from?" Micah asked Lin curiously.  
The elf paused for a moment, chewing his lower lip before shrugging. "Most of them. But not all. Some he got when I wasn't around."

"Mm, that's fair. That makes sense," Micah said, watching as Caelan picked up one of a pair of daggers from their spot on a rack.

They were a design Micah couldn't quite place, curved, dark steel with a spiralled black and silver hilt that looked almost like a dragon claw holding the blade.

"Do you know about those ones?" he asked more quietly, not wanting to pressure Caelan.

"A present" Lin whispered back, watching Caelan carefully. "From a Lord out east. Trying to bribe Ro into marrying his daughter. Ro took them and then informed him our father would never allow it and disappeared. That... caused some tension at parties."

"Drama daggers," Micah couldn't help but giggle, sheathing his short sword carefully with his free hand before resting it against the wall beside him.

Caelan turned the dagger over in his hands a few more moments before balancing it on his finger briefly. Seemingly satisfied, he picked the other one up as well as the sheathes. "Is it alright if I take the pair?" he asked Lin.

"Seems that Caelan got attracted to the drama" Lin giggled back, before trying to stifle it when Caelan spoke. "I would rather you did, actually. It would be a shame to separate them, you know. They're a pair. And they suit you."

Caelan smiled at that, hooking the belts of the sheathes onto his arm as he kept one blade out to examine. "These are very good blades. Perfectly balanced, too. Thank you," he said, as he looked it over. "I hardly ever see ornamental hilts that are this practical. Usually they make the blade odd to hold, but they did a good job with these."

“I’m glad you like them” Lin smiled, and Micah didn’t hesitate before turning around to pull him down sharply for a kiss. For his credit, Lin only stumbled a little on his way down.


	10. A Mountain Woman

It was an old saying, that the kitchen was the centre of the home. Lin couldn’t say that he necessarily agreed with it, but he could understand why it had happened.

It was somewhere where they congregated a fair amount. Started off their days over breakfast, and met up in the evenings to eat together. It never really mattered whether or not they were spending the day together, or what their plans were. Breakfast and dinner had become a hard, unwritten schedule in their lives.

Caelan rarely helped cook, but Micah could often be found next to Lin helping with something or another. He had explained that he had learnt from his mother, helping her cook when he could. He wasn’t necessarily the best at some of the more fiddly techniques that Lin used, but could cook perfectly adequately as it was. Lin had made it clear he didn’t mind, though, it wasn’t like he was cooking for a high priced restaurant. As long as it tasted good, Lin really didn’t care what it looked like.

It was nice company, in the end. Micah seemed to be more than adept at keeping the conversation going for the three of them, and never seemed to mind if the two of them were quieter for any reason. He was nice to listen too, as well, telling all sorts of stories about his day, and what he wanted to do, and whatever seemed to pop into his head at the time. It was never the same thing twice, and he never seemed to get boring. Micah was, above all else, a good story teller.

“I got a letter from my Mama today.” Micah mused, busy cutting up vegetables to season some omelettes. “I think her writing is getting better, she must have been practising.”

Lin had seen the letters Micah got from his mother. Her writing was always written in big, blocky letters; and the spelling was always phonetical. Lin would never mention it, never bring it up out loud, but he struggled to understand what she was saying a lot of the time. Micah never did, though, and Lin would die for the way his face lit up every time the specific envelopes that designated a letter from her.

They were a distinct paper, cheap paper that looked like it had been patched together from a myriad of other pieces. The ink was of poor quality, too, scratched into the page in a way that didn’t help the poor handwriting. But it always smelled of lavender, the scent of it lingering in the room long after the letter had left in a way that somehow managed not to be overpowering. 

“She’s been doing some more construction work around the village, which is good.” Micah continued, not looking up from his task. “Not that I could ever tell her to her face, but she’s getting older. She hasn’t slowed down yet, but it’s only a matter of time, and I would rather she didn’t find that out for herself when she gets injured, you know?”

“As if anything could ever take your mother down” Caelan responded, making himself useful by setting the table and making drinks. “She kept up her training, unlike Dad, she’ll be good for another decade at least.”

“Yeah, well, I worry about her.” Micah pouted. Leaning over to pass Lin the vegetables he had already prepared. “She’s a stubborn as an ox, which is good occasionally, but… I know she’ll take it too far one of these days. Especially now Hiroki isn’t around to try and keep her in check.”

Lin paused, staring at the eggs he was whisking for a moment. It was a matter of pride that it appeared neither of the men noticed at all. It didn’t matter that they were too caught up in their own conversation, Lin knew he had managed to keep his ears perked up. Which was impressive, even if he said so himself.

“Like Hiroki ever kept her in check in the first place” Caelan shot back with a laugh. “He could never calm her down, you know that.”

Lin looked to the side to see Micah puff out his cheeks, a look of annoyance that Lin was more than used to.

“But he did. He had his own way of doing it. She knew when he was being serious, and when he was joking around. He had a… he had a way of making sure she knew when something was too much, too far. And a way of telling her that didn’t make her feel like he was talking her down.” Micah explained, and Lin heard the tap of the knife in time with his words. “I don’t know how to explain it, but that’s what it felt like to me. They had a respect for each other, for their strengths and weaknesses. And yeah, maybe your Dad has that too, but she still… It was different. With Hiroki.”

It was quiet for a time. Lin didn’t know if he was supposed to talk, supposed to ask about the people being spoken about. In the end, he knew it was purely cowardice that stopped him. It was always a problem he had, cowardice.

“Anyway, that’s why I invited her to visit.” Micah added, as if he hadn’t just dropped a huge bombshell on Lin’s whole life. 

“You what?” Lin asked, ears finally pinning back in pure fear this time. It was asked too quickly, without taking into account how it might affect Micah.

“I invited her to come and visit” Micah repeated, looking up at Lin with those wide eyes. “That’s okay, isn’t it? It’s just I really miss her, and I worry about her, being on her own. I thought she could come and see where I’m living now.”

Lin took a breath. It would be fine. He had survived much worse. He would survive this, too. It was just meeting his boyfriend’s mother, people did that every day and came through the other side.

Other people didn’t know what he knew, though.

But one look in those eyes, Micah’s ears slowly lowering the longer they looked at each other, and Lin knew that he had fucked up. Massively.

“Yeah, no, of course. That’s fine. It was just… it surprised me. I’m worried I won’t be able to get the house presentable in time.” he responded, leaning over to kiss Micah’s temple.

It was a bad lie. The house was always presentable, Lin knew that and so should Micah. But Micah always saw the best in people, for better or for worse, and he assumed that was what Lin was worried about. Because it was always far too easy to lie to Micah.

“Oh, she won’t care about that. She’ll be amazed that somewhere like this even exists! Our house, the one that I grew up in, was smaller than your room. I’m not kidding you, even a little.” Micah grinned, putting down his work to move over to Lin, resting his chin on his bicep to look up at him. “Plus, she’ll see what an amazing boyfriend I have, and how sweet you are, and she won’t care about the house. She’ll just care that I’m happy. Which I am. Because of you. And Caelan, of course, but she already knows Caelan. He doesn’t count.”

“Gee, thanks” Caelan huffed from across the room, but Lin was far too entranced with Micah’s eyes. If he didn’t know any better, he would say that he was using magic to trick him.

“When will she be here?” Lin asked, hoping that he seemed casual. ‘Casual’ had never really been Lin’s thing, but he was starting to learn at least. Well, he thought he was at the very least.

“Couple of days, maybe. However long it takes her to get through the mountains.” Micah grinned, ears finally returning to normal.

And that was, maybe, one of the best things he could say. Because that last sentence distracted him from the fact that she would be here in a couple of days.

“I mean, on the train it’s just a three day ride.” Lin mused. “So we have at least three days. Some time to get sorted.”

“Oh, she won’t take the train” Micah added with a grin, looking up at Lin with those same, mischievous eyes. “Mama is from a mountain clan. She’ll walk over. She’s looking forward to the trek.”

Lin had to pause for a moment. He had heard a lot about the woman, of course, but walking over the Hartiz Ridge was something else.

“I can… see why you’d be worried about her. If she’s doing something like that. But at least we have a couple of weeks.” Lin sighed, wrapping an arm easily around Micah’s back.

“Micah, you should tell him.” He heard Caelan add from across the room, and barely had the time to look up at him before he was drawn in by that cheeky smile from Micah.

“She set off two weeks ago.” he added with a smile. “Sent her letter from Eastborne, from Caelan’s parents’ place. She’ll be here sooner than that.”

Lin stared down at Micah, full of confusion and a little bit of pride.

“Micah Blackwood, you are going to be the death of me.”

Lin couldn’t help but hate the parallel between the night Hiroki left and the first time he returned. It was a… strange thought process, he realised this as soon as he stood slowly from his desk, turning around to look out of the window.

And there he was, just like he had been almost a decade before. Perched carefully on the windowsill, outline expanded and disguised by the cape that was flowing over his shoulders. It would be a familiar sight, even without Lin’s almost photographic memory and the fact he had replayed the image in his head over and over for the last seven years.

He felt like he was walking through treacle, each step towards the window more difficult than the last. He dreaded what he was walking into, the discussion he was about to have. His heart beat a jig in his chest, and he couldn’t tell if he was hearing it or feeling it.

Numb, nervous fingers slipped on the catch of the window. He was trying, oh so hard, not to look up at the face wreathed in flames that was waiting at his window. Maybe if he kept his eyes away from his for a while, then he could get his emotions in check before he spoke.

It was a stupid, stupid idea.

The night was warmer than when they left, no storm illuminating his sibling from behind. Instead the moon was high, and bright, and the stars shone brilliantly around it. Lin was sure if the fire wasn’t already lighting up Ro’s skin it would be glowing unnaturally from the light.

He dropped down with the same silence and grace as he did the first time, and for a moment they were left staring at each other. His clothes were rougher than the ones Lin had last seen him in, no more gold thread and gemstone buttons. Instead he was in more muted reds, fabric ripped and hastily fixed more than once. Even though he was still armed to the teeth, he wasn’t wearing the usual battle gear Lin had gotten used to seeing him in. These were more casual clothes, and more importantly, clothes that allowed him to blend in with the rest of the army. Clothes that meant he wouldn’t be recognised as someone from his background, no matter where he was.

A beat. A moment of silence between them before Lin was surging forward to pull him into a hug with all of his strength.

At the time, Lin thought he felt his sibling hugging him back just as tight. But years of contemplation, and the distance that afforded him, let him know that it was all in his head. 

“Ro.” he gasped, lips forming around the familiar syllable like it hadn’t been years since it last filled his mouth. “You came back. You came home.”

A few beats of silence, yet again, before the response came back.

“I needed to ask you something. A favour.” Ro responded. At the time, Lin thought it was something urgent, that’s why it was so to the point. But with that same, horribly length of time, he had come to realise it was because Ro no longer cared about him.

The Lin of the past, though, did not know about this.

“What is it?” he asked, pulling away just enough that he could look into his sibling’s eyes. Or where they should be, anyway, if they hadn’t been swallowed by a never-ending inferno.

“I… Lerendi is having a baby.” Ro said, barely containing his excitement. 

And Lin knew that name. Lerendi was, technically, Ro’s superior but it seemed like the two of them never really respected that as much as they should. Lin had met him twice, both times when Ro was gravely injured. The last time was the same day Lin had left the army, and returned home. He was a human man, with a kindly face.

He had saved Lin’s life, that last time.

“And what did you need me to do?” Lin asked in confusion. He wasn’t sure whether it was the current adrenaline running through his veins that stopped his logical thought process, or if there just… wasn’t one. It wouldn’t surprise him. Ro really wasn’t someone who really stuck to any kind of logical thought.

“I need to get them a present. The baby, I mean. Although… also something for the parents as well.” Ro explained, starting to pace the room. He had always been restless, and apparently living in a warzone for years had only made that worse.

He’s using you for the money. 

It was a small part of his brain, but a vocal one. One that had only ever really picked up whenever a man around the city was aggressively flirting with him in a way that made it obvious he didn’t just want to get in his bed. A small voice that had never been heard in response to Ro before.

Because up to now Ro had had access to just as much money as Lin did. But it had been a decade, and the army didn’t pay as well as just existing as their father’s children. He had suspected, for a while, that someone had been stealing from his room but he didn’t want to bring it up. It would have been so easy, for Ro to get in and take.

He should probably be annoyed at that. It should probably break his heart. But instead he could only be pleased that finally Ro had come home to see him.

“Of course, of course. How much do you need?” Lin ended up replying, with a speed that he knew he should have been worried about. Should, but wasn’t.

“I don’t know. I haven’t really decided on a present yet.” Ro responded, trailing his fingers along the edge of Lin’s desk. “I thought maybe a watch. What better than the gift of time, right?”

Lin nodded, not even looking back at him as he moved towards his bedside table. He had a purse in there, a purse of savings that he could always dip into if he needed something important. 

And maybe he didn’t need anything important right now, but Ro did.

He pulled out the purse, debating pulling out a couple of the larger denomination coins, before turning and holding the whole purse out to Ro. His sibling took it with a smile, and a nod of wordless thanks, before turning again to head out of the window.

“Wait.” Lin shouted out, taking a step forward and grabbing his wrist. Ro froze. He wasn’t used to being caught like this. “You’re not staying?”

There was a beat of silence, a moment which seemed to stretch on to eternity.

“I can’t. I don’t have a lot of leave, and I need to go and look around the markets before I head back.” Ro responded, and with time Lin could tell he was lying. He could have stayed. He just didn’t want to.

“Mother misses you.” Lin offered, hoping at least that would make Ro stay. Ro had always been their mother’s favourite.

“I know.” Ro answered, and he reached to gently uncurl Lin’s hand from his wrist. “But don’t you agree it will make it worse, if I turn up for an hour and then leave? It will be better if she never knew I was here.”

Lin had no response to that. No way of making Ro stay. Even if he got physical he had no chance of holding him back. And he did not want to get physical.

So he stood back, watched as his sibling headed towards the window.

Watched as he didn’t even look back before dropping to the floor, and disappeared into the night.

Lin awoke with a start, staring up into the darkness. It was one of the rare times he had ended up in the middle of the bed, Micah curled up with his head on his chest to his left while Caelan held his hand to the right, fast asleep.

He shouldn’t have gone to sleep. It was just asking for trouble. But a part of him was somewhat grateful for the chance to see Ro again, to hear his voice despite the distortion. 

He missed him so much his heart ached to think of it.

Lin had never seen what Ro bought for Lerendi’s son. Never asked, and somehow knew that he wouldn’t be answered if he did. He had come to terms with never knowing.

Until now.

Because now he had found out that Ro had bought a pocket watch. Gold with beautiful rubies enchanted to look like they were on fire. A watch that now held a detailed portrait of a lost family.

And he knew, now, that a second identical watch was purchased seven years later. Given to the son of the woman he had fallen in love with, but could never be with. A watch that housed a picture of the woman he loved, and the son she had with another man.

Because Lin had already met Karsi Blackwood before. He had met her years ago, in a hospital in the middle of a warzone. But he hadn’t known her as Karsi.

He had known her as Isilde.


	11. God's Gift

Caelan pointed and flexed his feet as he watched Lin bounce around the room he had deemed as the living room. It was just his library, really, but over the last day he had had more furniture delivered to make it appear much more like a traditional lounge. It was almost as if there were a whole family of people visiting, not just one woman. 

They had tried to explain that it was unnecessary, both him and Micah had, but Lin wouldn’t hear of it. So another sofa had arrived, and another couple of armchairs. They blended in with the current suite perfectly, as if they had been there all along, and Caelan was avoiding Lin’s endless fussing by pretending to test if they were just as comfortable as the old one.

Caelan just… couldn’t understand his concern and his panic over it. Sure, Karsi looked like a terrifying human being. But really deep down inside she was a sweetheart. Strength wasn’t always just in the muscle, Caelan’s father had taught him that from a young age. Sometimes it was the strength to keep moving forward no matter what happened, the strength to love others unconditionally. 

He had known Karsi as long as he could remember. He remembered her before she had Micah, and remembered her when she was so pregnant she had given up finding clothes that fit her properly. And he had only ever seen her strength fail once.

Hiroki dying had hit them all, and hit them all hard. Caelan had been on a job at the time, hired to find out if a man’s husband was sleeping around while he wasn’t there. It was boring, and far beneath him, but it brought in enough money to keep him alive.

It was easy, too, to prove it. Seeing as he timed it so he was inside the husband when his employer came home. 

But it was walking home, money in his pocket and freshly satiated, when he received a message from his mother.

She was coming to get him, as soon as possible. Because they knew that Hiroki was dead, and they needed as much support as they could get for when they told Karsi and Micah. 

He would have gone anyway, of course. The disagreement he had had with Hiroki wasn’t bad enough to stop him from going to the man’s funeral. Yeah, he was a complete dick, and never deserved the way that Micah stared at him like he hung the moon, but he didn’t deserve death. 

Karsi had breezed into the house like she always did, all warmth, and strength, and familiar. She treated his parent’s house as her own, but never overstepped her welcome. Caelan had dozens of aunts, all from his mother’s side, but Karsi? Karsi was the closest aunt he had, even without blood or marriage bonding them. 

Micah followed in after her, all smiles, and sunshine, and innocence. Still grinning wide as he walked up to Caelan, squeezed him tight, and caught him in a smirk that said “I remember what we did last month, and I want a repeat performance of it”. 

Caelan still remembered the looks on their faces when they heard the news, when they crumbled in front of him. All of the strength that Karsi held herself with failed, and she clung onto Micah and wailed. It was an unholy noise, a noise that Caelan never wanted to hear again for the rest of his life. 

It was strangely familiar. He had been in a similar position going on a decade before. Not the same, never the same, but similar. He could empathise with them a lot more than his parents could.

So he swallowed down his own feelings, became a rock for the two of them to lean on through the small funeral they held in the woods behind their house. No one but him had blinked an eyelid at the lies that Hiroki had told them all, the fake name, the fake family, the fake life before the army. Because that’s just who Hiroki was, never giving more than what was completely necessary, always laughing off anything that was asked of him. He was guarded, kept secrets like the best of them.

It made Caelan suspicious, but it wasn’t his place to bring it up. Everyone was suffering enough as it was, coming to terms with the loss in their own way, at their own time. His worries about just who Hiroki had been wouldn’t help anyone, or anything.

“What did he do?”

Lin’s voice pulled him out of it. The elf was still fluttering around nervously, and for a second Caelan wondered if he had read his mind. 

“You’re playing with your watch. You only do that when you’re thinking about the guy who bought them for you and Micah. Plus… he was kind of dating Karsi, right?” Lin asked as way of explanation, one ear ticking down in curiosity. “It would make sense that you were thinking about him. So… what did he do.”

Caelan thought for a moment, suddenly much more aware of his fingers turning the watch over and over in his hands. It was purely instinctual, and something that he was definitely going to have to work on in the future.

“Well… he used magic, and a lot of daggers. Fought in the war along with my Dad and Karsi…” Caelan started, and Lin shook his head, almost forceful for the first time since Caelan had met him.

“No, not in general. You know what I meant. He did something to upset you, Micah mentioned it. If he… if he loved you enough to buy you something like that, I can’t see why he would ever want to upset you enough for it to carry on after his death.” Lin interrupted, even though he didn’t turn to look at him, still kept fussing and making sure every little thing was complete perfection.

“He… He was a dick. Right full of himself. Thought he was the Gods’ gift to men, women, and everyone in between. But he could fucking back it up, was the problem. Talk himself into anyone’s pants. Never settled down even though the option was right there. And we had… we had a little altercation about it.” Caelan sighed, still trying to figure out exactly how to say what he was trying to say.

“Tell me. What happened.” Lin asked, and Caelan was about to ask just why he was so interested before he continued with his words. “It… it will be a good distraction. Lessen the anxiety, you know? Get me thinking about the past to stop me freaking out about the future.”

Caelan sighed. It wasn’t a… painful memory, like a lot of others were. And if he had learnt something, then it was…

It was the importance of talking about people. Keeping their memory alive. Whether those memories were good or bad.

So he sat back, closed his eyes, and began to tell his tale.

It hadn’t been too long before Hiroki had died, looking at the grand scheme of things. A year or two, at most. He had blazed into the house like it was a stage, smiling and performing as if they were an audience, not his family.

They were sat round a table, all eating happily while Hiroki spoke about all of his war stories, what he had been doing since the last time they spoke. But that wasn’t the only thing he spoke about.

Because Hiroki never had a filter. Hiroki spoke about all of his conquests, both on and off the battlefield. Including the ones in the bedroom.

And Caelan wasn’t stupid. He knew the effect it had on Karsi and Micah, the two that had always, always wanted him to stick around. Even though they tried not to show it, he could see the sadness in their eyes.

He had spoken to Micah in secret, when the other man was drunk or high, and how much he wished that Hiroki could stay in their family, didn’t keep leaving and abandoning them without a second thought. And Hiroki did nothing but rub that in their faces, reminding them he was going off and fucking whoever he wanted without a second thought to who he had at home.

Reminding them that they would never be a family.

Which was why he followed Hiroki out, when he went to refill his glass. Why he stopped him with a hand slammed against the wall next to him, watching his eyebrows shoot up to his forehead.

“Tell me, is it hard work being this much of an asshole, or does it come naturally to you?” he asked, crowding into the elf’s space, using all that he could to make him feel uncomfortable. Good, he deserved to know what it felt like.

But Hiroki just raised one eyebrow, crossing his arms in front of him and looking back defiantly.

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” he asked, relaxing back against the wall in a way that really shouldn’t annoy Caelan as much as it did. But Hiroki had always been cocky, in a way that rubbed Caelan completely the wrong way. 

“You know what I mean” he spat back, lowering his voice to make sure no one else in the house could hear him. “Coming in here, bragging about how you got your dick wet. I know you’re a fucking idiot, but you must know what that does to Karsi and Micah.”

He thought, for just a second, that he could see recognition, maybe even sadness, in Hiroki’s eyes. But in less than a second it was gone, and the dickhead was smirking at him again.

“Ah, this is fun. You think you know what everyone else is thinking. Karsi and Micah know what’s happening, they know the deal. It doesn’t hurt them.” He responded, waving his hand lazily and dismissively. Caelan hated him more by the second.

“And what exactly do you think they know.” Caelan deadpanned back, not letting up an inch. “Because I can guarantee you’re being a dick.”

“They know that I can’t stay.” Hiroki responded, looking far too casual for the conversation they were having. Caelan knew that he was capable of feeling emotion, he had seen it before, but right now he was doing a very convincing job of hiding it.

“That’s bullshit and you know it. You haven’t been home in years, you managed to sneak away once. Your father wouldn’t know if you started a relationship, got married, whatever. It’s just an excuse to run away from your responsibilities and commitment.” Caelan spat back, having to force his voice to stay quiet. 

And that at least got Hiroki to react, to lean forward into him and hiss back. “You don’t know anything, Caelan. You think that you know everyone’s business, and you’re always right. But you don’t. You have no idea about my father, about my home life, about where I grew up. So you can butt your fucking nose out.”

And Caelan had never, really, gotten off on people’s anger. But he had been holding back for so long, and finally he had gotten a rise out of the man in front of him. Add to that he gave him a very specific thing he could do to make things better for everyone, something that was his speciality. 

“Okay, so let me kill him.” he responded, voice still flat. “What’s one more assassination, hey? One last job. I won’t even charge you, think of it as a gift. I would give everything to have a wife and child, and you’re just… throwing it away like it’s nothing.” 

Hiroki shook his head, one hand shooting out to grab hold of Caelan’s shoulder faster than he could think to get away. A part of Caelan wanted to shrug him off, but it seemed a bit too petty right now.

“He will kill you.” Hiroki urged, and his eyes looked the most serious that Caelan had ever seen them. “If I thought I could kill him, I would have done it already. I’m not going to send you into a situation I don’t think I myself could win. I won’t risk you for that.”

Caelan took a breath. He could argue back, he supposed, but for once Hiroki looked deadly serious, and that was enough of an anomaly to make him pause. 

“Alright. Whatever. Just… stop telling them all the time how you’ve moved on without them. Or I will decide to just hunt your Dad down and try to take him on.” 

It was a stupid threat, one that he was pretty sure he wouldn’t follow through on. But it was a good threat for Hiroki, he knew he would never risk Caelan’s life. The elf nodded back at him, and Caelan finally let him go.

“Did he stop?” Lin asked, finally speaking up when Caelan fell silent from his story. He was still nervously flitting around, and looked like he was dusting the tops of some of the books opposite the sofa. Obviously he was running out of things to make himself feel useful.

“He… yeah. He did. To his credit. That doesn’t solve the fact that he lied to us, though. I’m sure the reason he didn’t want me looking for his dad was that he had lied to us all about his family, where he was from.” Caelan sighed, running a hand up through his hair.

“Maybe… maybe he didn’t know whether he could trust your parents when they first met. And then maybe he couldn’t go back, couldn’t admit to the lie after he had told it?” Lin suggested, and it made Caelan pause. It would make sense, sure, but…

“You didn’t know him. That wasn’t… He thought he was invincible. But he trusted Dad and Karsi with his life. He would have told them anything. There’s no family he could have come from that he would be too worried about telling them.” Caelan responded, grabbing Lin’s wrist as he came close enough and stopping him dead.

“Lin, baby, come and sit down. Relax. You’re not helping anything.” he soothed, and heard Lin sigh before sitting himself down next to his legs. He almost deflated as he sat, slouching down until he was almost folded in half.

“What if she hates me?” he asked out of the blue, turning his hand to interlace his fingers with Caelan’s.

“Who, Karsi?” Caelan replied, shuffling a little so he could pull Lin down to lie next to him. “She won’t hate you. She doesn’t hate anyone. She might look scary, but she’s a sweetheart, I promise you.”

Lin stayed silent for a long moment, and Caelan was close enough to watch him swallow a couple of times. He obviously didn’t believe what Caelan was trying to soothe him with.

“Trust me, as long as Micah loves you, she will love you. As long as you don’t hurt Micah she will have zero reason to hate you.” he urged, running his thumb over the back of his hand gently.

Lin took a big breath, closing his eyes and letting his head fall back against the arm of the sofa. “Yeah… I will take your word for it.”

A part of Caelan told him that he really didn’t.


	12. Mama's Boy

Every item in a three foot radius had been cleared the first time Micah had sat at the front window in the hallway of the house, the one that had the best view over the front garden to the main gate. It had, originally, been decorated with vases and cushions, but Micah’s tail had been swishing behind him so excitedly it had quickly become a serious issue.

Not that Micah minded, or even really seemed to notice. Because his Mama was on the way, and she would be here soon, and he wanted to meet her at the gate. The most difficult decision had been whether to sit here, where he could see much further but would take him longer to get to her, or downstairs where he couldn’t see as far but could be out of the door in seconds.

Micah had never been the most patient person. Not even close. But this was the worst he had felt in a long time. He knew his ears were twitching impatiently, his tail beating a constant rhythm behind him, and he knew that he would be a nuisance to anyone who had the misfortune of being around him.

Caelan popped into talk to him occasionally, sliding in next to him on the window desk and leaning a comforting arm around him. He never complained about Micah’s waiting, which was something that Micah would be eternally grateful for. It was something that came from nearly three decades of knowing each other, he supposed.

Lin never came up, though, and Micah had been a little hurt until Caelan had explained.

“He’s too busy having a panic attack and making far too much food for just the four of us.” Caelan had sighed earlier in the morning. “He might come up if he calms down a bit.”

Micah sighed right back, trying not to roll his eyes too obviously. “You’ve told him he doesn’t need to freak out this much, right?”

“Of course I have. But he’s said he’ll make sure he’s around when she gets here, so you can introduce him.” Caelan soothed, resting his head against Micah’s shoulder as he kept looking out across the garden. “I figure it’s just best to let him get all the nerves out, and then he’ll calm down when he meets her and realises how lovely she is.”

Micah had smiled, ears twitching even faster as he leant his head carefully on top of Caelan’s, taking care not to bump him with his horns. “You gonna introduce him to your parents sometime?” he asked, finding Caelan’s hand easily with his and interlacing their fingers.

“Maybe.” Caelan had responded, squeezing his hand tightly. “But not for a while. I think his poor heart might explode if I did it too close to him meeting your Mum.”

Micah had laughed, loud and genuine. He did feel a little bad, seeing how anxious Lin was getting. But then again, his Mama was a big part of his life. If Lin wanted to stay with him, then he would just have to accept that.

“Maybe give him a couple of years for his heart to return to normal.” Micah teased, leg slowly moving to wrap around Caelan’s leg.

“See how he goes, first.” Caelan smiled back, but Micah had known the truth. Introducing Lin to his parents was a huge step, and one he suspected that Caelan didn’t want to take just yet. Then he would have to admit just how much he cared for the elf they lived with.

Micah was on his own when he finally spotted her. She was hard to miss, even if there had been more people heading to Lin’s house. But he saw the glint of sunlight off an axe he knew was taller than himself. 

He didn’t take any longer to look at her just yet, turning away from his window and sprinting down the stairs two at a time.

“She’s here!” he yelled as he went, excitement filling his voice as he took the last ten steps in one leap. He didn’t stop as he ran out of the front of the door, leaving it wide open as if it would take too much time to close it behind him. Not like anyone would be coming behind him, anyway.

His mother hadn’t noticed him as he sprinted towards her, and he took a moment to remember everything he had missed. She was still wearing her old fur coat, patched up so many times over the years that he wasn’t too sure it had any of the original material left. Her hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail, already coming loose as she walked along and Micah knew it hadn’t been brushed since she left Caelan’s parents. She never saw the point, apparently, when it would just get all knotty again. It still looked like she could take on any enemy bare handed and win, despite the wrinkles that had started to form on her face and grey hairs streaked through brown.

A theory he fully intended to test as he kept running towards her, checking that she spotted him coming and jumped up into her arms.

She caught him easily, spinning him around to lose some of the excess momentum he had built up as he hugged her back almost as tightly as she did him.

“Mama! You took longer than I thought you would!” he grinned, leaning forward to kiss her on the cheek as she put him down on the floor, still not letting him go.

“There was a storm in the mountains.” she explained, pressing a kiss to his cheek as she held him close, face pressing against her shoulder. “I had to hunker down a bit longer, I’m sorry Baby Boy.”

Micah laughed, tail wrapping tightly around her calf as he tried to hold her closer. “It’s okay. I rather you got here safely.” he smiled, already starting to purr loudly. It had only been a month or so, but he had missed her fiercely.

“This is where you’re living now?” she asked, looking up at the mansion. Micah looked up at her face, watching her pale a little. He understood, somewhat. Their house was barely big enough for the two of them, and could certainly fit into the foyer of the house in front of them.

“It’s okay, Mama. Lin is lovely, honestly. I know it’s kind of a big house-”

“Kind of a big house? Micah, this is insane. This is the biggest house I have ever seen!” she interrupted, but after a moment she sighed heavily. “You’re happy, yes? Here? With him?”

Micah nodded, looking up at her seriously. He had discovered, when he was about six or so, that his mother would believe any of his lies. Which was part of the reason he would never lie to her.

“He’s lovely, Mama.” he urged, telling nothing but the truth. “Caelan likes him, and you know what Caelan’s taste is like.” he started, before sighing when Karsi pulled a face. “Caelan’s taste in partners, not one night stands. He’s sweet. He cooks us breakfast in bed, and takes us to these awesome death pits, and buys us presents out of the blue. You’re going to really love him, Mama. Remember what you told me about never judging a book by it’s cover?”

“Don’t you use my own wisdom against me.” Karsi giggled, doffing Micah about the head gently. “But okay. I’ll trust you. If you like him, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for now.”

Micah leant down to pull his tail off from around her leg, letting her make it even a little further into the gardens. 

“Do you want me to take your bags?” he asked out of sheer politeness, already knowing what the answer would be. 

“I might be getting old, but I’m not that old just yet” she laughed brightly, and Micah laughed back. All these years, and his favourite thing to do was manage to make his mother laugh.

“I know, but it’s polite, you know. You raised me to be a gentleman.” Micah responded, sticking his tongue out at her. “Oh! And I know I mentioned in the letter about Lin getting me an audition with one of his friends, for a big midsummer ball, but I went to the audition and they said they wanted to see me perform! Just one audition, one song, and they said they definitely wanted me!” he grinned, a skip in his step as they made their long way up the drive. “So I get to go and perform in this big house in Winterdrift, and it’s two days before Midsummer so I can still come and spend the actual holiday with you!” he enthused, and Karsi listened dutifully.

“That’s so good, baby boy!” she grinned down at him, reaching over to fuss his hair between his horns. He didn’t mind it, definitely not as much as he did with Caelan. “You’ll be able to tell me all about it, when you come visit for Midsummer.”

“Oh yeah, I won’t shut up about this for weeks.” he responded, ears twitching and tail drawing an arc in the sand behind him. “There’s gonna be a load of really important people there, apparently, so if I impress them then I will get a load more jobs afterwards!”

He moved back into the house, looking up to see Caelan and Lin standing towards the side of the foyer. Lin was painfully awkward, shifting his weight on his feet and his ears pinned back in what Micah really wanted to call pure terror. It looked like he was staring down a dragon, not just Micah’s mother. He was dressed to the nines as always, more like he was going to a fancy party rather than just Karsi, and his hair was braided in intricate plaits that wrapped around his head.

“Mum, you know Caelan. And this is…”

“Lin?” Karsi asked, and it didn’t sound right. That wasn’t how you said the name of someone that you had just met.

Micah turned to look at her, and she had gone pale, staring at Lin like he was a ghost. It almost mirrored the look that Lin was giving her, and the moment stretched to what felt like years. 

“Karsi.” Lin replied, and he sounded resigned. “It’s really good to see you.”

Karsi dropped her bag and was across the room in a second. Micah’s panic spiked, he had only rarely seen Karsi move that fast, and it had never been good. But this time she wrapped her arms around Lin, and pulled him into a hug. Lin actually squeaked, standing stock still for a second before his arms came up and he hugged her back.

“I thought I recognised the name, but I couldn’t think of why. But your face. I could never forget a face.” she said, burying her face into Lin’s neck with a sob in her voice. “How long has it been?”

“Thirty eight years.” Lin laughed, but it was definitely choked through tears. “And… three months.” he added, as if that would help at all.

Karsi pulled away, grabbing Lin’s face and holding it close to hers while she looked into his eyes.

“You haven’t changed at all. It’s like…” she started, making Lin laugh quietly. And yeah, now Micah could see that his eyes were filled with tears.

“It’s the Elvish blood” he responded with a laugh, letting Karsi move him as she wanted to. Not that he ever really had a chance of resisting.

“You’ve got that right.” Karsi laughed back, before her face turned serious and she sighed deeply.

“I am… so, so sorry for your loss. I can’t even begin to think of what you must have gone through.” she finally said, and Lin looked down at the floor for a moment, before looking back up to her with wide eyes.

“That’s not… It’s me that should be sorry for you. You were much closer to him than I ever was. I’m sorry you lost him. I’m sorry… I’m sorry I couldn’t find you. I never knew your name, otherwise I would have…” 

“Shh, it’s okay” Karsi smoothed, running her hand gently over Lin’s hair, suddenly filling the role of a mother that Micah was so used to. “I know you would have. It’s okay, I’ve found you now.”

Micah looked over at Caelan, only to find him looking straight back at him, the same confused expression that must have been plastered across his own face.

“Hey, Mama?” Micah asked quietly, even though there was a large part of him that didn’t want to interrupt the two of them in what was so obviously a personal moment. She didn’t fully turn to look at him, but there was the tiniest turn of her head that told him that he was okay to keep speaking. “What’s going on?”

Karsi sighed, looking at Lin as if she was asking him if he wanted to take the question. Whatever she was looking for obviously didn’t come, because she sighed and turned around to Micah.

“I’ve already met him. Back in the war, Gods, nearly forty years ago.” she smiled, taking a deep breath.

“This is Hiroki’s little brother.”

“There’s a human woman going into the mansion.” Jun said, not taking his eyes off the walkway as he did. “Looks to be friendly with that Tiefling you shagged.”

He was stood in the tallest tower of the Einke temple, balanced on a box in order to see out of one of the windows. There was a clear view to the Chasso Mansion here, and all of the entrances and exits. It had been a very deliberate design decision by the architect.

“As in, friendly friendly, or friendly friendly?” Sunita asked, barely looking up from her cards. She had been at this for a week, and anyone else would have given up now. But this was something more important than she could put into words.

“Like a mother friendly.” Jun responded, rolling his eyes as he finally turned around as they went inside and jumped off the box to land quietly on the floor. “Couldn’t see close enough to figure out a family resemblence, but I reckon I could pick her out if we see her around town.”

Aire nodded, hugging her legs as she sat up against the door. They shouldn’t, technically, be up here, but her alarm spell would let them know if someone was on the way, and then she could easily hide them or get them out of there.

“She might be another avenue in, then. Any luck, Suni?”

The genasi shook her head, finally sighing and sitting back on the cushion she had demanded after she realised that she was going to be up here for long stretches of time sat in the same place.

“Nothing. He hasn’t popped up anywhere. I… I think he got him.” she finally sighed, tears already starting to fill her eyes now she was admitting it out loud.

They sat in silence for a while, Jun sitting down heavily between them and crossing his legs. The four of them had been friends ever since Aire had gotten into the city, over a decade. It was strange to think that he was gone.

“Maybe we need to go to the Drach’s.” Aire finally said, and Jun shook his head violently.

“It’s too dangerous. We don’t have anything to offer them. They don’t work for just coin and I doubt they have any interest in anything we have.” he elaborated, staring down Aire with a seriousness she couldn’t ignore.

“We could find something!” she urged, leaning forward in place. “You know that he would have done it for us. He walked into hell for us, and this is how we repay him?”

Jun just sat silently, crossing his arms and looking away from her with a huff. 

“I could start looking into what they might accept?” Sunita suggested, gesturing to the cards in front of her. “We don’t have to go to them, but if we have something they might want then we shouldn’t close it off that quickly.”

Jun waited for a second, before shrugging and nodding back to her. “Only if you agree if we have nothing to offer, we don’t go in empty handed. Understood?”

Aire nodded, her face firm and serious like it had been so often this past year.

“Whatever it takes to avenge her. Whatever it takes to take him down.”


End file.
